Might Is Right

US President Donald Trump’s peace initiatives appear to be turning into a one-sided affair in which the aggressor is being allowed to dictate terms and the victims virtually coerced to accept them swallowing their self-respect and pride without asking questions of justice or fairness.

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As a plan negotiated 19 November between emissaries of the American President and those of Russia President Vladimir Putin heavily favours Russia, it is tantamount to capitulation by Ukraine. For, it includes territorial concessions to Moscow, reductions in the Ukrainian army and its armaments, a pledge not to join NATO and a ban on deploying NATO troops in Ukraine. Russia has failed to achieve its end even nearly four years of fighting and when Europe with continual flip flops by Trump is firming its resolve to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the US President seems to be pulling the rug from under the feet of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is the fourth time since his first call with Putin shortly after returning to the White House that Trump has pushed for dialogue with the Kremlin leader behind the backs of Kyiv and its European allies. This is nothing short of betrayal that is reminiscent of the UK’s appeasement policy that whetted the appetite for land and market of Adolf Hitler eventually leading to World War II. Each time, like the fiasco of the Anchorage summit on 15 August attended by Trump and Putin, the attemp