Trump's got a 'secret plan' for Ukraine and Putin's going to love it

Trump assures that if he reaches the White House he will end the war in Ukraine "in 24 hours." And The Washington Post offers more details on how it intends to do so. His secret plan will surely please Putin.

Trump's plan is, indeed, simple: for Ukraine to hand over territory to Russia and negotiate peace. According to The Washington Post, it would consist of "pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea and the border region of Donbas to Russia."

Trump would also be willing, according to The Washington Post, to limit the expansion of NATO so that countries like Ukraine could not join this military organization.

After Trump's alleged "secret plan" for Ukraine came to light, Zelensky made statements about it. But, given that his country's survival depends (largely) on American military and economic aid, he preferred to react prudently. According to CNN, Zelensky is open to listening to Trump's ideas with "pleasure."

Zelensky told CNN’s Senior Correspondent Fred Pleitgen via video link from Ukraine: “First and foremost those signals were on certain media platforms. I haven’t heard that directly from Trump. His ideas in detail, I did not have an opportunity to discuss them with him and to discuss his ideas on how to end the war.”

Pictured: Zelensky and Trump in 2019.

Zelensky continued: “If I have such an opportunity I will with pleasure listen to them and then we can discuss the topic.”

In reality, a plan for Ukraine like the one revealed by The Washington Post is heavenly music to Putin's ears.

In a stagnant war, without major advances and great attrition, he could win over Russian public opinion with the victory of having conquered Ukrainian territories and achieving imperial peace.

Trump's team refused to respond to The Washington Post about the existence of this plan for Ukraine and limited themselves to discrediting the information with the following message: "“Any speculation about President Trump’s plan is coming from unnamed and uninformed sources who have no idea what is going on or what will happen.”

Karoline Leavitt, Trump's campaign spokeswoman then continued,  “President Trump is the only one talking about stopping the killing.”

However, Trump's team insists that when the tycoon returns to the White House, he will stop the war. And they add that he is the only one who can do it.

From the beginning of his mandate (with information pointing to Russian interference to help him reach the White House), Trump's relationship with Putin was the subject of scrutiny.

Trump has never had any harsh words against the Russian leader but rather the opposite. And the most 'Trumpist' Republicans have been trying for months to put obstacles in the Senate to stop economic aid to Ukraine.

Add to this Trump's tendency to support the isolationism of the United States, his commitment to ignoring international conflicts and attending only to his own interests. This could lead to Zelensky losing fundamental support to resist Russian attacks if Trump returns to the White House.

Back in November, Zelensky questioned whether Trump could end the war in 24 hours, as he claimed, and invited him to visit him in Ukraine to see how things are on the ground.

In any case, Trump has his own rules, whether he talks about domestic politics or international affairs. Everything is extreme in his statements, such as when he said, as reported by CNN, that he would be willing to encourage Russia to "do whatever it wants" with those NATO countries that do not spend enough on defense.

What seems clear is that Trump is willing to join those pressuring Zelensky to give in and negotiate peace in exchange for territories. An option that, day by day, gains followers in public opinion in many countries, tired of the war effort and the threat of an internationalization of the Ukrainian conflict.

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