Twelve countries including the United Kingdom and France and the European Union all supported Trump's proposal for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Zelensky, who had been uncompromising before, also relented, saying that Ukraine was ready to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Why did these 12 countries suddenly change the rumor of supporting Trump?Zelensky had such a fierce quarrel with Trump before, why is he willing to bow his head now?
You know, before this, European countries 'support for Ukraine was almost monolithic. While sending weapons and funds to Ukraine, they have imposed rounds of sanctions on Russia, but now they have changed? In fact, the considerations behind it are not difficult to understand. The goal is very clear, which is to support Trump's proposition of "an immediate ceasefire and using the current contact line as the starting point for negotiations."
Of course, they did not forget to add in the statement that they "do not recognize the use of force to change international borders", but this sounded more like giving Ukraine a step down. After all, if we really want to take the border issue seriously, Ukraine will not be able to get back the areas actually controlled by Russia in the short term.
In fact, the reality is that Europe’s aid to Ukraine has already exceeded 90 billion euros, so much money has been thrown in, not only do not see the hope that Ukraine can win, but instead increase domestic fiscal pressure and people’s dissatisfaction.
Europe’s defeat of Trump also meant that Zelensky lost his capital, so Zelensky said reluctantly that Ukraine was ready to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Before Zelensky dared hard, is to feel that Europe will always support him, but now 12 countries turn to Trump, Ukraine has no foreign aid, and hard support can only be more passive. and he also considered to understand that "the real-line ceasefire" is stronger than "cutting down Donbass", the latter will let him on the back of "sell the country" accusation, the former can still keep a little space, say not allowed later there is a chance to talk about territorial issues.
In the whole thing, Trump’s role is special.
The most direct reason why he actively promoted the ceasefire was that he was distressed for money. In December 2024, then U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said that U.S. aid to Ukraine had already invested US$102 billion, plus Europe's 90 billion euros, totaling more than US$200 billion. You know, Russia's annual military spending only costs just over US$100 billion. Trump was originally a businessman. He felt that so much money was invested in Ukraine, but he didn't see any results. It was no different from throwing away money.
In order to promote the ceasefire, Trump's means are really ruthless. For Ukraine, he talked and squeezed at the same time, forcing Ukraine to sign unequal treaties and sell state-owned assets; Regarding Russia, he also talked and imposed sanctions, supporting the West to freeze Russia's US $300 billion foreign exchange reserves, so as to force Russia to make concessions.
Overall, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has indeed seen the dawn of peace, but there are a lot of shadows behind the dawn. In the short term, a ceasefire may first be achieved, after all, 12 countries and the United States and Ukraine have agreed, and if Russia opposes it, it must also consider the pressure of the West.
But the next negotiation fears it will be a lasting war.