Trump holds the cards to end this war but he has to find the fortitude to stand up to the Europeans and the neocons he appointed.
Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio, Aug. 18, 2025 in the Oval Office. (White House /Daniel Torok)
By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News
Donald Trump made some revealing remarks to the media as he flew to Florida for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. Asked if he thought Ukraine is being asked to give too much land to Russia in his proposal to end the war, Trump responded:
“It’s clearly up to the Russians. It’s moving in one direction. … That’s land that over the next couple of months might be gotten by Russia anyway. So, do you want to fight and lose another 50,000 or 60,000 people? Or do something now? They are negotiating; they are trying to get it done.”
That’s the same realistic approach Trump’s new special envoy to Ukraine, U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, took with the Ukrainians and Europe’s so-called “coalition of the willing” during a visit to Kiev earlier this week.
Driscoll reportedly threw in yet one more reason for Ukraine to end the war – the fact that the Russians have ever-growing stockpiles of missiles they can deploy.
In other words, the undeniable Russian advances all along the contact line in Ukraine are no longer deniable to anyone tuned into reality.
But not everyone is tuned in. U.S. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who unrealistically claimed that Ukraine could still win, has been removed as special envoy to Ukraine, but there are other neocons lurking near the White House, for instance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio who also as national security adviser can control the flow of intelligence and policy proposals to the president.
Rubio was in Geneva last Sunday with the Ukrainians and Europeans to undermine Trump’s 28-point plan, trying to replace it with one of just 19 points that unrealistically gives an advantage to Ukraine. Unrealistic because this war has already ended on the battlefield and Trump has virtually acknowledged it.
What’s next is an official agreement, endorsed, ideally by the United Nations Security Council, where France or Britain, however, could veto it, as the Europeans continue their efforts to thwart such a peace agreement.
Britain, France and Germany, for example, are still pushing the fantasy that Russia is poised to attack Europe.
So we are at the threshold on Ukraine, at the beginning of a consequential battle between the neo-cons and Europeans on one side, and Donald Trump and the realists on the other. Will Trump show the fortitude to see this through and overcome his secretary of state?
For now you can dismiss the idea that the so-called “Peace Plan” is “dead on delivery.” It hasn’t even officially been delivered to Russia yet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff meeting at the Kremlin on Aug. 6, 2025. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, in background. (Kremlin.ru/ Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0)
Russian President Vladimir Putin awaits hand delivery from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff probably on Monday – Washington’s recent unorthodox conduct of diplomacy notwithstanding.
My sense is that Witkoff, like Driscoll, will dis the Europeans and go to Moscow with the 28-point draft plan for discussion and that it will adhere to one of the main provisions of Anchorage — namely that Trump will not let Zelinsky sabotage movement toward an agreement. Putin told Hungarian President Viktor Orban today in Moscow that he remained open to meeting Trump in Budapest at a future date.
With the hawkish Kellogg now in the doghouse, it is clear that both sides are fully aware that Putin holds the high cards, the U.S. low ones, and Zelinsky none. Trump has indicated that if Zelinsky remains obdurate, his alternative is to “continue to fight his little heart out.”
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For his part, Putin seems ready to do business. An important backdrop is his priority objective of preventing relations with the U.S. from falling into a state of complete disrepair. As for Ukraine, Putin has reiterated that the 28-point Trump plan could form the basis for future agreements.
Taking questions from the press yesterday in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Putin gave clarity to a number of key issues. He said there was “no ‘draft agreement’ per se,” but rather “a set of issues proposed for discussion and finalization.”
Putin went on:
“We discussed this with American negotiators, and subsequently, a list of 28 potential points for an agreement was formulated.
Thereafter, negotiations were held in Geneva between the American and Ukrainian delegations. They decided among themselves that all these 28 points should be divided into four separate components. All of this was passed on to us.
In general, we agree that this could form the basis for future agreements. However, it would be inappropriate for me to speak now of any final versions, as these do not exist.”
Putin noted that the U.S. — this would be Trump, not Rubio — is “taking our position into account – the position that was discussed before Anchorage and after Alaska. We are certainly prepared for this serious discussion.”
Putin disembarking at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15 for a meeting with Trump. (White House /Daniel Torok)
On the question of land, Putin made certain that Russia will not be denied. He said, “I think it will be clear at once what it is all about. When the Ukrainian troops leave the territories they occupy, then the hostilities will cease. If they do not leave, we will achieve it militarily. That’s that.”
Of course, in 2022 Russia entered the Ukrainian civil war that had begun after the 2014 U.S.-backed coup that lead to the U.S.-installed government attacking the ethnic Russian Donbass region, which had rejected the unconstitutional change of government and declared independence.
After eight years of indirectly aiding Donbass, Russia intervened directly after the Minsk agreements to end the civil war were sabotaged by Ukraine and the Europeans. Russia’s war demands have remained demilitarizing and denazifying a neutral Ukraine. In the course of its intervention it has absorbed four Ukrainian oblasts into the Russian Federation, which remains non-negotiable to Moscow.
“Those in the West who understand what [recent Ukrainian defeats on the battlefield] could lead to are pushing for an end to the fighting as soon as possible,” Putin said, referring to the realists in Washington.
“They understand that if the front lines are drawn back in certain areas, the Ukrainian armed forces will lose their combat effectiveness and their most combat-ready units,” he said. “‘Enough is enough, preserve the core of your armed forces and your statehood, that’s what you need to focus on,’ say those who hold this view.”
But he said “others,” referring to the Europeans and neocons, “insist on continuing the hostilities until the last Ukrainian. That’s the difference in approaches.”
Putin tried to put to rest the fear-mongering in Europe about a planned Russian attack on the continent. “Russia does not intend to attack Europe. To us, that sounds ridiculous, does it not?” he said. “We never had any such intentions. But if they want to have it formalised, let’s do it, no problem.”
Putin also reiterated that Russia could only sign a peace agreement with a legitimate government in Ukraine after a new election, another obstacle to overcome.
“I believe that the Ukrainian leadership made a fundamental, strategic mistake when it was afraid to hold presidential elections, and as a result, the president lost his legitimate status,” Putin said. “As soon as any kind of peace agreement is reached, the fighting will stop, and the state of emergency will be lifted, elections will be announced.”
Which is another incentive for Zelensky and those who back him inside and outside of Ukraine to keep on fighting.
“So, basically, we want to reach an agreement with Ukraine in the end, but it’s almost impossible right now, legally impossible. We need our decisions to be internationally recognized by the major international players. That’s it,” said Putin.
He added:
“And so, of course, we need recognition, but not from Ukraine today. I hope that in the future we will be able to come to an agreement with Ukraine: there are many healthy people there who want to build relations with Russia for a long-term historical perspective.”
Peace then will require the complete negation of the neocons and the Europeans and a new government in Kiev — a tall order indeed.
It comes down to whether Trump can finally stand up to them — people whom he appointed, like Rubio, and whom he golfs with, like Sen. Lindsey Graham. He seems to have less respect for the Europeans, who practically sat at his feet around the Oval Office desk earlier this year pleading their case on Ukraine.
Trump may be motivated in part by the vain desire to end the war to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But he can get it done. Trump can ignore the Europeans and be serious this time about cutting off military aid and intelligence to Ukraine as he threatened to do if Zelensky did not accept his 28 points by Thanksgiving.
When it comes to Ukraine, Trump really does hold the cards. Will he play them?
— Joe Lauria contributed substantially to this article.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27 years as a C.I.A. analyst included leading the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and conducting the morning briefings of the President’s Daily Brief. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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What is Europe’s motive to keep the war going? They are draining their own funds, losing their industrial base and economies to sanctions, and even the US has hung them out to dry. Do they image there is a magic pot of gold in Donbass that will pay for all of it?
Is it just that they are more afraid of their creditors like Blackrock if the war stops making money, than they are of economic demise and geopolitical irrelevance?
I don’t and never have understood why Trump doesn’t take the simple head-on confrontational approach to the enemies of not just but Trump but America, by doing a “My fellow Americans” address on television and following it up with an updated version of Roosevelt’s Fireside chats which lay out first in overview then in detail the nature of the enemy within.
Why doesn’t Trump get, if he is on our side, the simple fact most people are simply ignorant?
Ignor-ant.
They don’t know, and they don’t care. Because it hasn’t reached out and touched them personally. Yet…
So spell out why it is important. And spell out why they need to care.
Trump has the skills to do this. If he truly isn’t captured by the system he operates inside of, and is not operating as a mere puppet distraction for we the sheeple, he has the power to do this.
Will he do it?
If he doesn’t, America as a nation is finished.
“Trump has the skills to do this.”
Wrong. Trump is a moron. A bloated ego propped up by his handlers.
“If he truly isn’t captured by the system he operates inside of…”
Fantasy land conjecture. Trump was captured long before he ever set foot in the bleached house.
“..,and is not operating as a mere puppet distraction for we the sheeple…”
Now you’re getting somewhere. Trump is operating as a mere puppet distraction for the sheeple. An apt characterization.
“Sheeple.” A term also used by the right in the U.S. to describe voters for an elitist Dem party that abandoned the majority working class decades ago. Used by Dem loyalists who call Trump voters stupid–not a smart way to win them back. But the D upper middle class doesn’t want to recognize their own responsibility for why Trump was elected. Like never noticing how the Rust Belt became deaths of despair central. Or that the Ds bailed out Wall St. while the millions who lost jobs, pensions, houses got nothing.
The term means its users consider themselves superior to the Other, those people, the subhuman lessers. Class prejudice is still acceptable to educated elites. Just like bigots who denigrate BIPOC and LGBTQ, they simply see their own views as common sense.
Does Trump have the political ‘capital’ to end the war and force the Europeans & Ukraine to accept his decision? A decision that would have to include all of Russia’s much repeated requirements.
Somehow, I doubt it, since he has not shown much consistency or determination. He has given in to the neocons too many times, and keeps buckling under pressure, and changing his mind.
Even if he were to force a settlement and sign a deal with Russia, neither Ukraine not the Europeans would stick to it- and how then would he enforce it? Equally, the Russians wouldn’t trust it either, and after the failure of the two Minsk agreements would be prepared to fight again.
So, in my view, Trump has virtually zero chance of ending the conflict in a lasting way. Whatever he does, Europe won’t support it.
who cares about what Europe wants?
Trump has not shown the ability withstand pressure from the MIC. The MIC is almost desperate in wanting this war to continue, and the MIC almost always gets what it wants.
It is impossible to ignore that all of western Europe is on a cultural, religious, military, economic warpath to try to hold western dominance of all the past ages alive out of fear is losing access to US runaway deficit military technology for full spectrum dominance out of fear of having to share world culture and learn how to play nice for a global society.
About the only thing TRump has done right, IMO, is get off Russia’s back about Ukraine. I seem to remember something about “not one further inch to the East”. NATO should not be in Ukraine, anymore that China should be in Juarez ; The Russian population of Ukraine should have some political protections from abuses, and we should mind our own damn business..
Facebook is really screwing with you folks as you know.
Maybe it s time to confront them. You have the most credibility in these parts!
I can share from your FB but not from your page.
When I post articles from the CN page, FB puts up a warning that it is “Forbidden”. However, if people click on the word “forbidden” the link to CN works.
“When it comes to Ukraine, Trump really does hold the cards. Will he play them?”
Obviously not: Norway decides who gets the Nobel Peace Prize, with a lot of input from the EU.
The US as self appointed Ukraine War peace broker is the final irony. Hoarse laughter at the back. The schadenfreude is almost too delicious.
The West has pursued Russia ever since WW2 ‘ended’. WW2 is actually finishing now folks. 80 years later. Neither the US, EU or UK , who conspired together to ruin Russia have any cards to play. Russia has had to lose countless lives to preserve their sovereignty. The unnecessary sacrifice of life on both sides is simply wicked. The UK and the US permanently refuse to acknowledge the 30m lives lost by Russia in defeating fascism. Russia should be formally thanked. It’s a lesson Russia can never forget. But ‘The West’ deliberately does.
So it’s all over. Thankfully there will be a permanent and fundamental shift away from Western imperialism/colonial settlerism to a shared world where the imperatives of finite resources and global warming will be the way mankind joins in looking after the planet together. Peacefully.
Call me a dreamer?
I’m not the only one.
I’m a dreamer too.
I simply don’t believe that DT has the cognitive ability to follow through on any coherent policy, he is showing signs of cognitive decline, possibly dementia. Also, he appointed Rubio because of pressure from one of the bribe-masters. During his visit to the Knesset, he openly admitted that the 100 plus million-dollar “donation” (bribe) from Miriam Adelson had influenced his policies.
We have obvious and flagrant institutional corruption in all 3 branches, so policy is determined by the “donor class” (oligarchy).
If the US regime were serious about peace with Russia they would have reestablished diplomatic relations, cancelled all intelligence and logistic support for Ukraine, withdrew CIA (and pressured the UK to withdraw MI6) from Ukraine, force the euro-vassals to give back the 300 billion in frozen Russian finances, and re-negotiate START, INF etc. I don’t see any of that, so I can only conclude that the war on Russia will continue, no matter what happens to the pawn of Ukraine.
Russia and the U.S. however have not broken diplomatic relations.
US citizens can contact their elected representatives and urge them to support sticking to START treaty limits using a facility on the Roots Action website.
I strongly urge people to do so.
Thank you.
I have no representatives in Congress. I am a Marxist and do not vote for the capitalists.
Marx was a puppet of the capitalists. Marxism is an invention of the capitalist to divide society with a awful ideology against capitalism: divide and rule. Nothing good, what Marx brought to humanity. “Dictatorship of the proletariat” for transition was a catastrophic idea. For a great thinker this is unforgivable. The real good reformers where such like Silvio Gesell and Rudolf Steiner. Because of the capitalist empowering Marxism ideology they achieve to hold every good ideas unknown. And worth: for the capitalist Silvio Gesell was a communist (reform of the land) and for the communist he was a capitalist (less state intervention, more free entrepreneurs. So, good ideas and discussions where shut down by the loud cheers of both sides: divide and rule.
At 79 there is always some cognitive decline, but clearly he is a genius, and is capable and competent.
Did he appoint Rubio because he was coerced? You make a big statement, that the US president is either a puppet or coerced.
I suspect it was intentional, Trump keeps his enemies close.
Did he admit Miriam is a traitor to weaken Miriam’s political influence in the US? It would be consistent with a genius.
Well, you may say there is corruption. All countries have it. Probably the lawfare against Trump indicated it is at a level that threatens the voice of the US public in political debate. Is there a problem with donors influencing US presidential policy? the majority of America believes so, and voted Trump.
A big question is how much control does Trump have? Some of the Republicans have had a tendency to turn on the president (that was voted for by the US public) and attempted to impeach the president twice. One remembers the Democrat party colluding with the CIA and FBI to without factual basis, impeach Trump on matters concerning collusion with Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. Should Trump pretend he is in a fairy tale, and that impeachment is not part of the US constitution, that he should ignore real political threats? Can he change the opinions of his voter base, many of which are employed by the US weapons industry, and the US military. Will he be elected, as a dove? Would he even win the mid terms if he acted as a dove, and failed to gain peace in Ukraine? And he would irritate those voters, who value US military dominance, and are unfamiliar with, or only have superficial knowledge of events that occurred in Ukraine.
Do you also consider the Russian intelligence, and their President to be incompetent in their assessment of whether there is a possibility of negotiated peace with the US? Does Russia want stability on its western border? Of course it does, the cold war with the Soviets demonstrated a willingness to engage in reciprocal, mutual trust but verify arrangements for detente.
How does the saying go? Better a thousand days of diplomatic negotiations, than one day of war.
How in the world is Russia possibly winning when the media were telling us over and over c. 2023 that Russia had ran out of missiles and was using parts from household washing machines for military armaments?
Were the even-handed impartial Western media possibly shading the truth, you think?
Apparently, Russia makes superb washing machines.
Ha! Exactly.
For eighty years the lies about Russia created today’s negative feelings. The banks don’t want the workers to have any say.
Yep.
The parasitic financial elite, throughout world history, have always become apoplectic whenever Russia decided to assert genuine sovereignty.
The corporate propaganda media was lying. They are still lying. It’s embarrassing. Why would you ever believe them?
Correct. I apologize if my sarcasm was a bit muddled. Peace
“Russian President Vladimir Putin awaits hand delivery [of the so-called “Peace Plan”] from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff probably on Monday – Washington’s recent unorthodox conduct of diplomacy notwithstanding.” Ray McGovern.
… notably, *“A U.S. envoy coached a senior Russian official on how to influence an American president into embracing a plan that advantaged an aggressor and weakened an ally fighting for its survival as a sovereign state.” [The Opposition].
AND, *“The Russians more or less wrote this document just as the Israelis more or less wrote the Gaza plan.” Patrick “On Point” Lawrence, “[ONE], it is a working document, nothing more.”
Concluding, imo, a settlement, “security guarantees” aka “promises made, promises kept,” will build trust, reap a “universal” sentiment, i.e., “So, basically, we want to reach an agreement with Ukraine in the end, but it’s almost impossible right now, legally impossible. We need our decisions to be internationally recognized by the major international players. That’s it,” President Putin.
… *Point No. 5 offers Ukraine “reliable security guarantees,” i.e., War is Over, “Coming Soon,” a Presidential Election? Martial law, done & dusted?
… *Point No. 7 — brief, perfectly clear — that goes straight to the point: “Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be permitted in the future.”
No doubt, imo, Ukraine’s NEXT President knows the USG/NATO are @ “Used! Abused!! Abandon, Ukraine!!!” Fuhgeddabout NATO. In memory of Biden-Harris, Ukraine can “build back better” w/BRICS. Ukraine’s gotta have a “Plan,” i.e., Why not a BRICS’ Membership. A “legitimate” Ukraine would be eligible, right?
Concluding, the wolves @ the door are Trump’s “base,” i.e., “The Neocon-Realist War Over Ukraine….So we are at the threshold on Ukraine, at the beginning of a consequential battle between the neo-cons and Europeans on one side,” Ray McGovern, i.e., *“The Great Betrayal: How a U.S. Envoy Helped Russia Shape a Plan Against an American Ally. Steve Witkoff’s guidance to Vladimir Putin’s top adviser reveals a foreign-policy process captured by private channels, Russian influence, and the abandonment of an ally at war.” * hxxps://theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-great-betrayal-how-a-us-envoy …. [AND] Donald Trump and the realists on the other.”
“Will Trump show the [courage & common sense] “fortitude” to see this through and overcome his [Caddy, Little Marco Rubio, his Cheshire Cat, Steve Witkoff, his shadow, Pete Hegseth,; &, his “bloody-orange” Base]?”
TY, Ray McGovern Patrick Lawrence, CN, et al. “Keep It Lit.”
Ray Mc and Joe L. what a duo, a combination of intellect
we could all be refreshed with.
But expecting “fortitude” from Trump–not likely.
His narcissistic personality thrives on admiration,
obedience and even worship, so deal-making is
what he does not standing up to adverse conflicts
and tension.
Cards are for neocon Rubio to lose on Ukraine, but he’ll be
given his military violence in Venezuela.
Marco Rubio must immediately be removed from the office of Secretary of State, by the President, according to the U.S. Constitution, and affirmed by Supreme Court decisions, for example, Myers v. United States (1926), which held that the President has exclusive authority to remove executive branch officials.
He would not – for a positive change in a more democratic direction, even have to undermine the power and authority of the long-established systemic institution, namely the U.S. Congress.
This would be his first sincerely ‘noble’ move for the sake of all Americans and the World at large.
Agree. Not only is Rubio undermining Trump with regard to Russia and Ukraine but he’s the one pushing the war with Venezuela, primarily as a way to further strangle Cuba which relies on the Venezuelan lifeline (primarily oil).
Sadly, Miriam won’t like that!
Als ze het niet leuk vindt, kan ze het ophangen!