David Vance SubstackRead More
The response of the Europeans to the news that US Pentagon officials were in Kiev the other day was quite interesting. They panicked!
Senior US military officials, led by Army Secretary Driscoll, arrived to discuss efforts to end the war with Russia. This was the highest-level Pentagon delegation in Ukraine since President Trump took office. So it was important! The US team met with Ukrainian Prime Minister and also President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The backdrop to these crunch talks is a reported proposed framework that would end the conflict via major Ukrainian concessions, such as relinquishing control of parts of Donbas, (already lost) sharply reducing its armed forces, and relinquishing many weapons. In other words this is not THAT different to what was suggested a few moths back
This revised plan has been crafted by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented that any durable peace would entail “difficult but necessary concessions” on both sides, and that the US is consulting both parties to formulate ideas for ending the war.
All common sense. It takes compromise to end any war. Or overwhelming victory.
European and Ukrainian officials were notably absent from drafting the plan, raising concerns in Europe. EU foreign policy chief, the incredibly pompous Kaja Kallas and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot both stressed that any solution must have Ukrainian and European participation, and warned against any plan amounting to Ukrainian capitulation.
Why? What has it to do with the EU beyond the fact it wants to keep the killing going?
This war will end when the US and Russia agree and BOTH Ukraine and the EU are side shows. That might sound harsh but it’s how it is. Ukraine only operates with US tacit approval and Trump has made it cleat he wants this killing ended.
