French President Macron said today (November 23): "We, along with our European and G7 partners, welcome the efforts made by the United States to bring peace to Ukraine."
This shows one thing: everyone except Russia wants peace, while Russia continues to stubbornly bomb Ukraine.
The 28-point proposal put forward by the United States must be improved: no border can be changed by force, and Ukraine must never be in a vulnerable state.
Any decision involving the EU or NATO must be approved by its member states.
We will continue to closely coordinate with Kyiv and Washington.
Our collective support for Ukraine is crucial. The security and freedom of the entire Europe are in jeopardy."
According to the draft content disclosed by foreign media, the U.S. demands that Kyiv give up some parts of the Donbas it still controls, reduce its military size, and commit never to join NATO. By lifting sanctions and inviting Russia to rejoin the G7, Russia would reintegrate into the global economy.
Comments: This so-called "peace" proposal for Ukraine actually exposes the cold nature of great power games: the U.S. uses Ukraine's territory and sovereignty as a bargaining chip to gain strategic flexibility, Russia's core demands are basically met, while Europe is angry at being excluded from the negotiations but is unable to truly take control of the situation due to its reliance on the U.S. and internal divisions, and Ukraine becomes the most helpless victim in this game, caught between "dignity" and "allies" in a dilemma.
Core points of contention
1. Territorial cession issue: requiring Ukraine to recognize Crimea, Donbas and other areas as Russian, and to withdraw from part of the Donetsk controlled area, which directly touches the red line in Ukraine's constitution regarding territorial non-cession, and also violates the principle of inviolability of sovereignty upheld by Europe.
2. Limitations on Ukraine's sovereignty and security: forcing Ukraine to amend its constitution to never join NATO, significantly reducing the size of its military, and attaching many ineffective conditions to its security guarantees, which makes Ukraine's core security demands unmet, and also causes Europe to worry that Ukraine may be easily attacked later.
3. U.S.-Russia dominated interest distribution: the plan stipulates that the U.S. takes 50% of the profits in Ukraine's reconstruction, and part of the frozen funds from Russia flow into joint U.S.-Russia projects, while Europe has to additionally come up with 100 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, and Europe was excluded from the formulation of the plan, seriously damaging European interests and voice.
4. Unilateral implementation mechanism: led by Trump himself, the "Peace Committee" supervises the implementation of the agreement, completely bypassing Europe and multilateral international organizations, which causes Europe to question the fairness and feasibility of the plan, and also sparks controversy over the Western alliance decision-making mechanism.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849537645885508/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.