“Recognition of Crimea” –

Former US President Donald Trump has already drawn up a plan to quickly end hostilities in Ukraine if he manages to get re-elected to the White House next November. The “Washington Post” newspaper writes this, according to which the ex-president’s plan would be based on the recognition to Russia of Crimea and the eastern Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine already occupied by Moscow’s forces: conditions that Russia had already set at the beginning of conflict, but which according to the newspaper arouses the nervousness of part of the US Republican Party and of “foreign policy experts”, opposed to “rewarding Putin” for his policy of military aggression and to condoning a forced violation of the borders of an internationally sovereign state recognized. In the meantime, however, the situation on the ground in Ukraine continues to worsen for the attacked country, so much so that in recent weeks several analysts and important Western newspapers have feared a breach of the Ukrainian defensive lines, and even scenarios that would see Russia advance up to Odessa and the Dnipro River.

In recent months, Trump has claimed that he can end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, if US voters re-elect him to the White House. According to the «Washington Post», Trump has already confided his line to his collaborators. To the latter, Trump reportedly declared that he was convinced that both Ukraine and Russia “want to save face, they want a way out” of the conflict, and that the inhabitants of several eastern regions of Ukraine would not be at all against be ruled by Russia. Analysts and academics close to the ex-president’s positions – adds the “Washington Post” – underline that the end of the conflict in Ukraine would allow the USA to return to focusing on the confrontation with China – a game of greater strategic importance – and to reduce the Russia’s growing economic and military dependence on the leading Asian power, which is helping to strengthen the latter. Supporters of this line would also consider “a limitation of NATO expansion” to be positive for global stability.

Precisely in consideration of the intentions expressed by the former US president, NATO has moved in recent weeks to “lock down” military support to Ukraine for the next five years, until the end of a hypothetical second Trump administration. The NATO ministerial held in Brussels last week in fact opened with the proposal of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of a five-year military support plan for Ukraine of 100 billion dollars, a figure later confirmed by various sources , although not directly from Stoltenberg himself. A fund which, as Foreign Minister Tajani also confirmed, “would still be defined”, but to many it seems to be the legacy of the current secretary general in anticipation of a possible victory for Donald Trump in the next US presidential elections, which could also lead to a step backwards by the United States.