Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Sept. 6, 2024. (Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany — President-elect Donald Trump’s team is considering a plan that would see European troops in charge of a demilitarized zone in Ukraine, where the U.S. would continue to provide arms in exchange for Kyiv giving up sizable territory and its NATO ambitions.
The proposal, reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, is one of several being batted around by Trump advisers tasked with coming up with a plan to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Kyiv has thus far ruled out giving up its claim to Crimea, which was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014, or to the land Russian forces overran in the aftermath of the 2022 invasion.
But Trump has vowed to bring about an end to the war on day one of his presidency, which comes when he is inaugurated Jan. 20.
The Trump administration’s approach to dealing with Ukraine and Washington’s handling of the war amounts to a reversal of President Joe Biden’s long-stated promise to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes.
All the various plans being looked at call for the war to be frozen along current battle lines, which have Russia holding about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Altogether, the occupied territory amounts to an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania.
The proposals also require Ukraine to suspend its NATO membership ambitions, with one postponing any such move for at least 20 years, the Journal reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in New York on Sept. 27, 2024. President-elect Trump’s team is considering a plan that would see European troops patrol a demilitarized zone in Ukraine, and the U.S. would continue to provide arms in exchange for Ukrainian territorial concessions and deferment of NATO membership for Ukraine. (Facebook/Embassy of Ukraine in the USA)
In return, the U.S. would continue to deliver large supplies of arms to Ukraine’s military to help deter potential future invasions.
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine would need to agree to an 800-mile demilitarized zone policed by allies in Europe, with no U.S. forces involved, the Journal reported.
“We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European,” a member of Trump’s team told the Journal, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We are not sending American men and women to uphold peace in Ukraine. And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it.”
It’s unclear whether Russia would have any interest in such a deal. But Ukrainian neutrality and a demilitarized zone monitored by a United Nations peacekeeping force were among the ideas that had traction among a wide range of former Russian diplomats and analysts cited in a story by Foreign Policy Magazine in August.
Now in its third year, Russia has suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties during the war that was mismanaged by its battle commanders at the outset.
In recent months, Russia has has made incremental gains by overtaking outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin also put the country on a wartime economy, which has ramped up its industrial base to replace weaponry lost during the war.
A deal that has Russia gaining Ukrainian territory is certain to upset many allies in NATO who could see such an arrangement as a victory for Moscow.
Still, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in a difficult spot. European allies aren’t in a position to make up the difference if the United States stops arming Ukraine and Zelenskyy refuses a peace deal.
Without sufficient arms and ammunition, Ukrainian forces would be even more exposed.
“Strong and unwavering U.S. leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday after a congratulatory phone call with Trump.
