Politicians and experts convinced that Trump will try to force Ukraine to make concessions to Russia
The latest statements by U.S. President Donald Trump about the exchange of territories indicate that he intends to try to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions, Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006-2014) and Prime Minister (1991-1994) of Sweden Carl Bildt believes.
"The idea with the Trump deadline was to force Russia into agreeing on a complete ceasefire. Now it looks like it will instead lead to Trump trying to force Ukraine into territorial concessions to Putin," Bildt said on the X social network.
Later he compared this to the Munich Agreement of 1938. "In 1938 UK and France forced Czechoslovakia to hand over key territory to Hitler. The result? Within months Czechoslovakia ceased to exist, and within a further few months, there was all out war in Europe," the diplomat stated.
The founder of the volunteer group "People's Rear," former Deputy Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Heorhiy Tuka, said Trump's proposal, if you believe media reports, is that "the orcs return part of our territory to us, and we give them part of our territory." "After such a policy of the U.S. President, there is no reason to be surprised by the rapid increase in countries that will begin to produce nuclear weapons as the only guarantor of their own security," he said.
Senior partner of the Avellum law firm, former head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Kostiantyn Likarchuk skeptically called the proposal to "exchange their own territories for their own territories" the "art of the deal."
"The only good thing is that withdrawing troops from such a territory, 'exchange' them – it is very, very difficult. Therefore, there is hope that this will never be done. Personally, I do not imagine a Ukrainian president with any surname who would give such an order. Even less do I imagine that the Ukrainian army will carry it out. And so – a respite, time to prepare for the fourth phase of the war. That is, if it still happens," he said.
Swedish economist and diplomat, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States Anders Åslund called Trump predictable after such statements.
"His 'threat' of sanctions on Russia was merely an invitation to one-on-one meeting with Putin and a way to block sanctions on Russia demanded by 85 senators. Now Trump has set the stage for his sellout of Ukraine behind its back. Everything suggests that immoral Trump is preparing to stab Ukraine in the back, giving Putin half of what he asks for while Putin has not made any concessions," he said on X, adding that "horrifying to see how Trump stabs Ukraine in the back."
Timothy Ash, senior sovereign strategist at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, commented on Aslund's statement, writing: "Basically Trump and Putin choreographed all this to screw Ukraine."
"By meeting in Alaska both Trump and Putin give the biggest signal yet that they plan to make decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine and behind its back. A great power summit carving up the world and smaller countries are the menu," he later added.
Ukrainian MP from the Holos faction Yaroslav Zhelezniak said the claims that "someone misunderstood" do not look very plausible. "Let's be honest, if they have already publicly announced the date and place of the meeting of the two heads of state on August 15, then it is obvious that they have clarified their positions many times before that. But what they agreed on without us is something we obviously will not like, that is expected," he said on Facebook.
MP from the European Solidarity faction Mykola Kniazhytsky, in turn, said that among all the rumors circulating in the media, there is nothing about security guarantees for Ukraine. "At the moment, everything sounds like Ukraine should leave its cities, and Russia should do nothing. I will remind you once again what I have written about many times: the key issue of ending the war is guarantees that it will not start again. It is precisely security guarantees that are the main disagreement that does not allow (and, in my opinion, will not allow) to achieve an end to the war," he said.
The MP also emphasizes that signing the agreement on the "exchange of territories" will have obvious legal consequences for the signatories. "Even if the authorities want to share responsibility and shift the burden of signing to the Verkhovna Rada, the modern legal system is built in such a way that even discussing such issues can lead to a criminal case," Kniazhytsky said.