Russia’s Sock Puppet
The latest statements issued by Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on “peace in Ukraine” should no longer be treated as eccentric personal diplomacy or rhetorical bluster. They must now be understood for what they are: an amplification of Russian disinformation—directed not only against Ukraine, but against the West itself.
This is not merely troubling. It is historically unprecedented.
For the first time in the post-World War II era, a sitting U.S. president has adopted—virtually wholesale—the strategic talking points of a hostile foreign power. Not selectively. Not tactically. But hook, line, and sinker. In this case, the foreign power is Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
One could argue that a similar asymmetry exists in the relationship between the American president and the current Israeli prime minister. That debate is worth having—but it is a separate one. For now, it is enough to focus on Ukraine.
The “Peace Plan” That Isn’t
Trump’s much-vaunted 20-point peace plan—which he claims could end the war swiftly—has been widely presented as a breakthrough. In reality, it is a diluted and slightly repackaged version of an earlier 28-point framework circulated in policy circles weeks earlier. Strip away the rhetorical varnish and what remains is unmistakable: a plan that essentially fulfils core Russian war aims, while asking Ukraine to accept permanent strategic vulnerability.
The central fault line is security guarantees.
Ukraine and its European partners have been explicit: any peace must include NATO Article 5–style guarantees or something functionally equivalent. Without that, Ukraine is being asked to pause the war—so Russia can finish it later.
Trump speaks vaguely of “security guarantees,” but his language tells a different story. His public affection for Zelensky is performative; his repeated minimisation of Ukraine’s strategic importance is revealing. Something less than meaningful deterrence appears to be on offer.
“Americans Are Tired of Ukraine”
We are repeatedly told that Americans are exhausted by the war in Ukraine. This may be true—temporarily. But the argument collapses under even minimal scrutiny.
Are these same Americans about to tire just as quickly of Venezuela? Of punitive airstrikes against an obscure Islamist faction in north-west Nigeria? Of threats to “level” Iran should it revive its nuclear program?
History suggests otherwise.
Ukraine is not being treated as one foreign policy challenge among many. It is being singled out. And the reason is not fatigue—Trump’s desires to please Russia, and more specifically, Vladimir Putin.
To Trump, Ukraine is not a sovereign state fighting for survival. It is a bargaining chip in a great-power transaction between “equals”: America and Russia.
The Dangerous Fiction of Equality
This is where the argument becomes genuinely dangerous.
The United States and Russia are not equals—not economically, not militarily, not technologically, not demographically. Russia’s GDP is smaller than Italy’s. Its military performance in Ukraine has exposed profound weaknesses. Its long-term trajectory is one of decline.
Putin himself almost certainly understands this, even if he lives within an information bubble of his own making.
But when a U.S. president repeatedly treats Russia as a peer competitor—rather than a weakened revisionist power—the fiction of equality begins to harden into “truth.” And in international politics, perceived truth often matters more than reality.
Putin loves this. He does not need to defeat the United States; he merely needs Washington to validate Russia’s great-power status on his behalf.
Media as the Cipher
Here, the media plays an unfortunate role.
Unable—or unwilling—to consistently distinguish between power and performance, narrative and reality, much of the press becomes a transmission belt for this false equivalence. Trump’s narrative reinforces Putin’s. Putin’s narrative legitimises Trump’s. The feedback loop closes.
And Ukraine—the invaded party—is reduced to a footnote in negotiations over its own fate.
Conclusion
This is not realism. It is not diplomacy. And it is not peace-making.
It is the internalisation of Russian strategic messaging at the highest level of American power—and it risks rewriting the rules of post-1945 international order in Moscow’s favour.
Ukraine is not the problem to be managed. Russia’s aggression is.
Any peace plan that forgets this is not a plan for peace at all.
References / Further Reading
NATO, Article 5 and Collective Defence
U.S. Department of Defense, Russia Military Power Reports
Fiona Hill, There Is Nothing for You Here
Lawrence Freedman, Ukraine and the Art of Strategy
Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Military Balance