Beware of Westerners Bearing Gifts
The American peace proposal for Ukraine is deficient, but the EU proposal is an absolute farce, which is clearly just an attempt to stall for time and buy breathing space for Ukraine to rearm.
“Deficiencies” and “smokescreens” are the terms that most accurately describe Western proposals.
Certain points are immediately recognized as reasonable, such as № 1, 2, and 3.
Other points are immediately recognized as absurdities, such as №6. Ukraine has no legitimate reason to maintain an armed force the size of 600,000 men (note the EU proposal is 800,000 strong). Keep in mind these Western powers wanted to limit Germany to 100,000 men in 1919, and Germany had almost three times the population in 1919 that Ukraine has now, and Germany had significant internal threats that Ukraine simply doesn’t have. Ukraine of 2025 does not need an armed force in excess of 200,000, and even that is being generous and erring on the side of excessiveness. 600,000 is absurd, and 800,000 is just a blatant plan for future aggression and provocation against Russia.
In the US plan, it is articulated, “If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid,” which is dangerous to the extent of the ambiguity and the loophole created by the term “without cause.” Who decides if Ukraine has “cause” to launch missiles at Moscow or St. Petersburg? Also, why only Moscow and St. Petersburg? Does this mean the West is giving a future Ukrainian administration carte blanche to launch a missile at Smolensk, Rostov, or Krasnodar because those aren’t Moscow or St. Petersburg? Will they even need cause to undertake such launches? The ban on launching missiles at Moscow or St. Petersburg “without cause” while moving in the right direction, is inadequate on its own; Ukraine must be categorically prohibited from launching projectiles into Russia, whether those projectiles are missiles, rockets, howitzer shells, or mortar bombs, regardless of the target.
Point 11 in the US plan is particularly dangerous: “Ukraine is eligible for EU membership and will receive short-term preferential access to the European market while this issue is being considered.” This is dangerous precisely because the EU is basically “NATO Light.” It is like a filtered low-tar “light” cigarette. If you told your teenage son not to smoke and he is “only smoking” light cigarettes, that would be unlikely to satisfy you because it violates your instruction. The EU is basically NATO Light. Ukraine should not join NATO, and Ukraine should not join the EU.
The heart of this proposal begins around Point 14 where the US........





















Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Sabine Sterk
Stefano Lusa
Tarik Cyril Amar
John Nosta
Ellen Ginsberg Simon
Gilles Touboul
Mark Travers Ph.d
Daniel Orenstein