WUB Hub Blog

Anastasiia Kudlenko argues that US president Donald Trump's promotion of peace talks has not only failed to bring peace to Ukraine, it has in fact undermined Ukraine's defence in several ways. Trump's goal is not so much peace as the normalisation of US relations with Russia, she says, and points to policies that will help to strengthen Ukraine's resilience.

This was always going to be a busy week for discussions about Ukraine, with senior political figures gathering for the Munich Security Conference which begins on Friday (14 February). Yet the pace picked up markedly on 12 February following a 90-minute phone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, the two leaders have agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He also stated that the pair have agreed ‘to visit each other’s nations.’ One might argue that the Trump administration is really carrying on different negotiations from the ones reported.

At the weekend, the European Union’s Josep Borrell visited Kyiv and sought to assure Ukrainians of the bloc’s ‘unwavering’ support. The statement, of course, came on the heels of Donald Trump’s election victory which has provoked concerns that the US will cut military and financial aid to Ukraine. But a political mess in Germany and a stymied government in France ensure that ‘Europe’ has been missing in action on Ukraine over the past week.