In an interview, Donald Trump’s running mate discussed establishing a demilitarized zone on the current front line, which would amount to imposing territorial concessions on Ukraine.
Donald Trump has claimed that if elected he would achieve “even before becoming president” to end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”. “I have a very specific plan”the Republican candidate recently declared, without revealing his specific proposals, suggesting that making his strategy public would weaken him in the negotiations.
Interviewed in turn on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast this week, his running mate JD Vance nevertheless outlined a few ideas. Broadly speaking, the Trump administration would first plan to establish a “demilitarized zone” on Ukrainian territory, along the front line.
Peaceful settlement of the conflict “probably resembles the current demarcation line between Russia and Ukraine which would become a kind of demilitarized zone,” said the Republican senator from Ohio, without specifying whether this zone should also be established on the Russian territory of Kursk, where Ukraine undertook an offensive this summer. This demilitarized zone would be “heavily fortified so that the Russians do not invade the country again”added the vice-presidential candidate.
This option would contrast sharply with the policy of Joe Biden, who has promised, alongside European allies, to provide military assistance to Ukraine to help it repel the Russian invader and restore the integrity of its borders, since it would include territorial concessions to achieve peace, with Russia currently occupying 18% of Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine outside NATO
Another major concession: the integration of Ukraine into the Atlantic alliance, a promise already made by the West “in the long term.” Under such a peace plan, Ukraine would maintain its independence in exchange for a guarantee of neutrality and would therefore not be able to join NATO or other “allied institutions”The Republican senator also specified that, in order to convince kyiv, Trump would not hesitate to make these measures conditional on new military aid. “Donald Trump’s policy is yes, be strong, but also be smart. Negotiate,” said JD Vance, arguing that even the Ukrainians no longer believed they could win the war anyway.
On the substance, Donald Trump’s running mate repeated that he was «faux» to consider this war as “the great humanitarian cause of our time” refusing to see the conflict as a fight between “good and evil”. “In such a fairy tale mindset, it is possible to justify a lot of bad decisions,” he said, adding that Russia “should not have invaded Ukraine” and that the “Ukrainians also have a lot of corruption problems”.
“It all has a lot to do with money, let’s be honest.”JD Vance said: “Ukraine is a country very rich in resources […] and that’s why the Russians are interested, the Europeans are interested and certainly a lot of American investors.”.
“Tired of wasting American lives”
On this subject, JD Vance once again took a dig at Europe, which has “underfunded this war while American taxpayers have been very generous”repeating the accusation regularly made by Donald Trump, and most recently during the electoral debate against Kamala Harris.
The United States is also too generous in the lives of its soldiers, JD Vance also said, stating that there was “a lot of risks” to encourage Ukrainians to retake Crimea. “The question is: How many American lives would it cost?”he said, suggesting that American soldiers would be engaged in Ukraine. “If the answer is greater than zero, then I’m out, I’m tired of losing American lives by being the world’s policeman.”.
As reported by the Washington PostKamala Harris’ campaign office denounced “a surrender plan” referring to the remarks of the Democratic candidate who declared in June that Putin “did not call for negotiations” more “to surrender”. “Trump won’t say he wants Ukraine to win because he supports Vladimir Putin”also said Morgan Finkelstein, a spokeswoman for the Kamala Harris campaign.
For the Democratic candidate, if America withdraws from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will have “With our eyes fixed on the rest of Europe and our NATO allies, starting with Poland. Dictators around the world would be emboldened and the world would be more dangerous.”she also said.
