Donald Trump said his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska was a step towards ending the war in Ukraine. Putin, however, is stalling on further negotiations as he continues to bombard Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine’s exclusion from the meeting shows that this is an imperialist proxy war where the US and Russia are calling the shots. It follows Trump’s humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February over his reluctance to negotiate a deal with Russia.
Zelensky joined a parade of European leaders who headed to Washington for talks with Trump in the aftermath of the meeting with Putin.
European leaders welcomed Trump’s suggestion the US could help provide “security guarantees” to Ukraine alongside European nations to deter Russia from resuming the war. However, Trump has ruled out committing US troops on the ground.
The US is still pressuring Ukraine to accept punitive terms in exchange for peace.
Trump has floated the idea of Ukraine giving up control of more territory to Russia through “land swapping”. Putin is demanding that Ukraine hand over the rest of the eastern Donetsk province, of which Russia has seized 75 per cent.
In part this is an acknowledgement that Russia has the upper hand in the war. Since the failure of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in late 2023 Russia has been slowly taking territory.
Russia’s war economy and much larger population means it can continue feeding troops into the fighting—and Putin is prepared to see thousands die for any advantage.
But Trump also wants to extricate the US from funding weapons and aid to Ukraine after three and a half years of war. This is not because he is pro-Putin, as some claim.
Trump has threatened “massive sanctions or massive tariffs” against Russia if Putin stalls on peace negotiations. He has already imposed secondary sanctions on India for buying Russian oil.
Trump’s actions are driven by imperialist motives. He sees China as the US’s key adversary, both in economic and military terms, and wants to focus all his efforts there. That means reducing US spending on wars in Europe and the Middle East and shifting more of the burden onto allies.
European states have now agreed to nearly double their own military spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and to pay for continuing to arm Ukraine.
Trump has also insisted that Ukraine needs to repay the US for its aid during the war, extracting a deal for that would give the US the right to control new mining developments including rare earth metals, oil and gas.
His administration also hopes to draw Russia away from its alliance with China through offering an end to economic sanctions. Putin, however, has little interest in abandoning China.
Imperialist motives
Trump is an imperialist bully. But US support for Ukraine has been driven by imperialist interests from the beginning. Ukrainian resistance has been funded and largely directed by the US and NATO in a proxy war against their Russian adversary.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had no justification. But NATO and the US have been happy to use Ukraine to weaken Russia and boost their own power—at the expense of an estimated 400,000 Ukrainian lives.
Back in 2007 Putin made it clear that Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO was a “red line”, with the possibility this would put US missile systems right on Russia’s borders.
But President Joe Biden refused to discuss any guarantee on preventing Ukrainian NATO membership even as Russia threatened to invade.
From 2004 the US spent millions to influence Ukrainian politics and topple pro-Russian governments. After Russia seized control of Crimea and parts of the Donbas from Ukraine in 2014, the US put another $2.5 billion into arming and training the Ukrainian military.
Shortly after the invasion began Ukraine was close to a peace deal with Russia where it would accept neutrality and agree not to join NATO, according to David Arakhamia, a senior figure in Zelensky’s government. But then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Zelensky to reject the offer and “make war” instead.
European leaders are using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to justify their massive escalation of military spending. This is not about defence but advancing the US and NATO’s power in Europe.
Anthony Albanese has not ruled out sending troops to Ukraine as part of any settlement and has spent $1.5 billion sending weapons. This only fuels the slaughter, wasting money that could be spent on housing, health or education.
We need to oppose Australian support for the war and demand an end to the US alliance and the hundreds of billions going on nuclear submarines, missiles and new military bases to support the US’s other drive to war with China.
By James Supple
