For former French President François Hollande, Donald Trump is not preparing peace but the “capitulation” of Ukraine

US President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to end the conflict between kyiv and Moscow within 24 hours, is actually preparing the “surrender of Ukraine”which would be “unbearable for Ukrainians” and one “humiliation” for Europeans, former French President François Hollande warned on Sunday.

Donald Trump “will stop helping” kyiv

What Donald Trump “said, even with excess, he realizes it with excess”commented on Radio J the former head of state, who was in business partly at the same time as the American billionaire, at the end of his five-year term at the Elysée.

On the Ukrainian issue, Donald Trump “will stop helping” Kiev, “which will cause a problem of imbalance of force”predicts Mr. Hollande. As part of a peace conference, he will then give “to Vladimir Putin all the land he acquired” since the Russian offensives of 2014 and 2022, “and then he will say to the Europeans: 'for the rest, it is up to you to guarantee the security of Ukraine, if you think it necessary, and it is up to you to help Ukraine with its reconstruction'”added the former host of the Elysée.

In short, “it’s not peace that he (Donald Trump) is preparing, it’s the capitulation of Ukraine”he estimated. “Allowing Vladimir Putin the benefit of force against international law would be serious and even unbearable for the Ukrainians”, and would raise fears of “other offensives carried out by Russia in the years to come”he warned.

Massive attack on Ukraine's energy network

The massive attack carried out on Sunday against the Ukrainian energy network – which also left at least eight dead and around twenty injured – is part of this context, according to Mr. Hollande: “It’s to exhaust the Ukrainians, to impress them”, and force them to “give in” during this “famous negotiation”he analyzed.

Faced with this prospect, Europe, and particularly France and Germany, must remain united, underlined Mr. Hollande, who called on his successor Emmanuel Macron to “take a strong initiative” with the German government coming out of the polls in February. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a “bad signal” by calling Vladimir Putin on Friday, Paris and Berlin, pleaded Mr. Hollande, will have to speak with one voice from February, to “stand up to Donald Trump” and don't “give nothing to Russia”.