War in Ukraine: "Final Offer"

Translated by Federico Emanuele

“No country can alter another's borders by force.”

In July 2018, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed the Crimea Declaration, stating that the United States did not and would not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

On April 23, 2025, the White House proposed a plan to Kyiv that includes recognizing Crimea as a Russian region. Ukraine must now respond to a draft peace agreement with Russia, unilaterally presented by Washington: “its final offer”.

“Take it or leave it”

According to the one-page draft, the American president offers Russia the following terms:

1. Legal recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea - for the U.S., the peninsula invaded by Moscow’s troops in 2014 would become officially Russian territory;

2. Recognition of Russia’s military control over areas of Ukraine it has seized by force during the war;

3. A promise that Ukraine will not join NATO. However, Kyiv may still be allowed to join the European Union;

4. The lifting of sanctions imposed on Moscow since 2014;

5. Intensified economic cooperation in the energy and industrial sectors.

In exchange, Trump offers Ukraine:

1. A “robust security guarantee” involving a group of European (and possibly non-European) countries — a peacekeeping operation that notably does not include the participation of the United States;

2. The return of a small portion of the Kharkiv region currently occupied by Russia;

3. Free navigation along the Dnipro River - which, de facto, marks the frontline separating Russian and Ukrainian troops in southern Ukraine (currently unnavigable due to constant shelling);

4. Reparations and reconstruction aid, though the draft does not specify where the funds would come from.

The Russian president has hinted that he may drop one of his previous demands: full control over four southeastern Ukrainian regions that are currently only partially occupied by Russian forces. Gaining full control of these territories would require a massive effort that Moscow has failed to achieve after more than three years of war.

In negotiations with Trump, Putin offers to give up what he doesn't have

For Kyiv, the U.S. president’s plan amounts to capitulation. Ukraine may be willing to agree to a ceasefire along the current frontline, but it cannot and will not surrender its territory to Russia. Doing so would mark the beginning of the end for its existence as a sovereign state - a Belarus-style fate.

Trump, on the other hand, is prepared to legally recognize Crimea as Russian and possibly even four southeastern regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia - while denying Ukraine entry into NATO (EU membership would still be on the table).

The plan is blatantly one-sided. Even worse, Moscow opposes the future existence of a strong Ukrainian military and resists the presence of European troops as part of any security guarantee. While the EU may take a pragmatic stance on territorial issues, it cannot accept a peace deal that leaves Ukraine both amputated and dangerously weakened by this so-called American peace.

Pax Americana

Cracks in the Western alliance over Ukraine began to show when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the key April 23 summit between Washington and European leaders in London.

On April 25, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for a fourth round of talks with Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, a barrage of over 70 Russian missiles and 145 drones hit Ukraine the night before, killing at least 12 people and injuring 70 in the capital. Europe condemned the attack unanimously: “The real obstacle to peace is Moscow, not Kyiv”, declared EU High Representative Kaja Kallas. And Germany warned: “No diktats in Ukraine - we need a fair and just peace”.

The Oval Office livestreamed confrontation showed the world exactly where the White House stands. The mask has dropped: Washington’s growing impatience with Zelensky and Ukraine’s struggle is now out in the open. After three years of U.S. support during an aggressive war, Kyiv is being pushed to settle. Europe is witnessing - in real time - the death of diplomacy and international justice: the strong blackmailing the weak, in what The Economist described as a “mafia-like attitude”.

Zelensky, however, stands firm: first the ceasefire, then the deal. Trump demands the reverse. Moscow stays silent - and benefits. Democracy’s weaknesses are pitted against autocracy’s brute-speed tactics.

Ucraina, unknown land

There is an aggressor - Russia - and there is a nation under attack: Ukraine. War and darkness blur into one another.

On Ukraine and Gaza, Europe wants to be a defender of law and reason - against a Washington that has chosen force over international norms. But can Brussels live up to its own words? One thing is now clear: the EU can no longer rely on the U.S. administration to support Kyiv.

In the worst-case scenario, Europe may find itself backing an embattled Ukraine determined to continue the fight - alone. Trump has already said that if Zelensky wants to keep fighting, “he can go ahead and lose the rest of the country”.

Kyiv is calling for guarantees - and voicing a well-founded mistrust of the Kremlin:


“We need security guarantee. We cannot trust Putin”

Because when guarantor Trump leaves office, who will protect Ukraine? Who will ensure Kyiv isn’t attacked again?

The war goes on.

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