In Trump’s dystopian world, Europe must not abandon Ukraine

Donald Trump has clearly shown that America on his watch will be abandoning Ukraine. From falsely branding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator to incredibly blaming Ukraine for the war, the US president has simply surrendered to Russian rhetoric.

Trump’s strategy is not one of peace but appeasement in which the bully is glorified and the victim is asked to lump it with not even as much as having a voice at the table.

For Ukraine this is an existential war. Thousands have died, many more have been displaced and the destruction of public and private infrastructure is widespread. Nobody has been spared in the Russian onslaught; from markets to theatres to hospitals and residential apartment blocks, bombs and drones have rained down on Ukrainian cities, killing innocent people and children. For three years a country has lived in constant fear, not knowing where the next wave of missiles will strike.

And yet, in Trump’s dystopian world Ukraine is to blame for bringing this onto itself and is expected to accept all terms of a ‘negotiated’ settlement from which they are excluded. To top it all, in typical feudal mentality, Trump has also asked Ukraine to pay for US assistance it has received by handing over 50% of rare earths mined in the country.

This warped logic is no different from that of someone who blames rape victims for the disgusting behaviour of their aggressors. It is this dangerous thinking that Trump’s fanboys in Europe, including some in Malta, are supporting when they gloat about the American president’s ‘peace initiative’.

The whole notion sounds pretty much like what British prime minister Neville Chamberlain tried to do in 1938 when he reached a settlement with Adolf Hitler, hailed as an agreement that would secure “peace for our time”.

Chamberlain’s appeasement strategy allowed Hitler to take possession of the German-speaking areas, known as the Sudetenland, in Czechoslovakia without the latter even having a say in the matter. In exchange, Hitler promised there will be no more territorial expansion in Europe for the Third Reich. We all know what happened afterwards.

This is one of the hard lessons of history that cannot be ignored when dealing with autocrats like Vladimir Putin, who have repeatedly exhibited expansionist ideals. Unfortunately, Putin now has a friend in Washington, who is willing to give him what he wants.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago was not the first act of aggression. Before that Russia had invaded Georgia in 2008 to take control of the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the pretext that it needed to protect ethnic Russians.

Russia suffered no international consequences at the time for its belligerence and six years later, in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine. At the same time, Russian-backed separatists waged war in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Again, the consequences Russia faced were ineffectual.

In each of these wars, Russia used military might to secure territorial expansion with no serious attempt to achieve diplomatic solutions to very complex legacy issues in territories occupied primarily by ethnic Russians.

Where does Russian expansionism stop? Will Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region be next? Will Russia set its eyes on the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?

The fear in these countries is palpable and the distrust of Russia has deep historic roots. It cannot be dismissed lightly when they clamour for security guarantees and increased defence spending.

Where does all this leave Europe? Unfortunately, the EU and Britain find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. At a time when the major power players – Germany and France – are distracted by domestic political problems – the EU lacks the necessary cohesion to act as one strong voice. Nonetheless, the insistence last week by European leaders that Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations amid a renewed commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was the right thing to do.

Trump is embracing Putin and abandoning Ukraine. It would be wrong and dangerous if others in Europe did the same.