Trudy Rubin: After three years of war in Ukraine, a Trump-backed 'Russian peace' would spell disaster

BERLIN — Three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it is clear who should win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

That honor rightly belongs to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — no matter what emerges from the sham peace process President Donald Trump is promoting for his own glory, all in open pursuit of the accolade.

It is Zelenskyy who has shown what leaders of European and Asian democracies must do to prevent reversion to a pre-World War II status quo, where great powers devoured weaker countries and seized their resources. He has led his people in holding off the supposedly second-most powerful army on Earth for three years, with substantial (but insufficient) U.S. assistance and even greater amounts of aid from Europe.

But now, the American president is repeating Putin’s mantras, denigrating Ukraine, and seems poised to cut aid.

Leaders who still believe in democracy — not only Europeans but also Japan and South Korea — must ensure Putin cannot destroy Ukraine. They must also work to prevent this bizarre U.S.-Russian duo from reasserting the doctrine that haunted the 20th century: That big powers led by strongmen can trample the rest.

The Ukrainian president has shown courage unparalleled by any other global leader from the moment he refused an American offer to whisk him into exile as the Russians were preparing to storm Kyiv.

Who can forget Zelenskyy’s famous retort, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Equally important, under his leadership, Ukraine has upheld the critical rule enshrined in the United Nations Charter, one which has kept the peace over the last 80 years. Namely, that international law bars any nation from seizing a neighbor’s territory by force.

Zelenskyy has done so at great sacrifice, holding his country together as Russia mercilessly bombed civilians, and keeping the massive invading army at bay since 2022 with the aid of brilliant Ukrainian military technology.

As German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the recent Munich Security Conference, “If we abandon this (rule), it plays into the hands of Russia and China, who have abandoned rules for decades.” He added, without naming names, that “when the world’s leading power says there is no need for rules, this must not become the new international order.”

Unfortunately, Putin, and now Trump, openly disdain international rules of law.

Yet, once such precepts are tossed into the dustbin, as Putin has done in Ukraine, we are back in the pre-World War II era, where Trump is free to seize Panama or Greenland — and to endorse a fake peace that allows Putin to restart his war after a convenient pause.

Many Americans probably don’t grasp how fraudulent the supposed peace plan Trump is pursuing is. The president said Friday it was not important for Zelenskyy to be included in negotiations over Ukraine’s future. He showers the Ukrainian president with slurs and insults that directly echo Russian propaganda and falsely claims Zelenskyy has only a 4% approval rating — when, in fact, at 57%, it is higher than Trump’s.

Judging by what Trump has said so far, and the herky-jerky way peace talks in Saudi Arabia have been rolled out, the president would be satisfied with a ceasefire that contained no guarantees of Ukrainian security should Putin later renege on the deal.

Clearly, despite his crocodile tears about “millions being killed,” Trump is indifferent to Ukraine’s suffering. He insists Zelenskyy should have accepted a diktat from Putin before the invasion. The Russian war criminal wanted Ukraine to shrink its army, limit the number of its weapons, and virtually surrender the country to Moscow’s control.

Trump is openly supporting the Kremlin’s vision of peace and will use American pressure to secure it. An arms cutoff or a severe cutback is almost certain. In what amounts to attempted extortion, the former real estate magnate turned president has been trying to strong-arm Kyiv into handing over a 50% share of its store of valuable minerals as payment for past or future military aid — even though those aid funds go right back to buy U.S.-made weapons.

So what can be done to save Zelenskyy, the true champion of peace against despots?

European leaders, as I heard repeatedly during the Munich Security Conference, understand Ukraine is now the border between Russian imperialist expansion and their own countries. They understand, as Trump refuses to do, that Ukrainians are dying to protect not just their own freedom but Europe’s, as well.

Yet, although they made strong declarations of future aid to Ukraine in Munich, and subsequently in Paris, top officials in Germany, France, and Great Britain are constrained by domestic politics. The results of Germany’s national elections this past Sunday — in which Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance interfered with open support for the radical right — may hamstring the country’s pro-Ukraine leadership as they seek to increase aid for Kyiv at a moment when speed is of the essence.

Three years into the war, my hopes for supporting peacemaker Zelenskyy lie in three directions, none of them assured.

First, this is the last chance for the GOP’s Ukraine hawks, who understand the danger of a Putin victory (backed by China, North Korea, and Iran), to finally grow some courage. If they don’t publicly oppose Trump’s plan to sacrifice Kyiv and call it peace, then they will stand jointly responsible for the wars that will likely follow capitulation to Putin. The time is now, or else it will be too late.

Second, while the Europeans struggle to unify their military support for Kyiv and fill the gap left by Trump’s shift to the dark side, there is one thing they could do that would make a difference. Little Denmark, led by brave Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, has channeled its aid directly to Ukraine’s military, complete with a vetting process to ensure where the money goes.

Ukraine has some of the most innovative weapon production in the West, including advanced drones, but needs funds to scale up. If other European nations, plus Japan and South Korea, join Denmark, this might help Kyiv ward off Russian advances until Trump realizes he’s backing the losing side.

Third, every country that supports democracy should start talking up Zelenskyy as a future Nobel Peace Prize winner. His brave stand, like the legendary Dutch hero whose finger in the dike blocked a flood, still holds back the efforts of Putin, Xi Jinping, and their allies to undermine democracy — in the Baltics, Poland, Western Europe, and Taiwan, and in Trump’s United States.

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