Is Donald Trump’s plan to end the Ukraine conflict already a dead letter on arrival?
A ceasefire alone is not true peace. Freezing the conflict ignores the deeper security concerns that started it.
Washington’s role in provoking this war cannot be overlooked — and this is why Trump’s mediation efforts seem destined to fail.
Join Peter Lavelle as he CrossTalks with Daniel McAdams, Hall Gardner, and Alexandre Guerreiro for a deep, no-holds-barred discussion.
🔥 Watch now, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and turn on the notification bell for more critical insights!
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A ceasefire alone is not true peace. Freezing the conflict ignores the deeper security concerns that started it.
Washington’s role in provoking this war cannot be overlooked — and this is why Trump’s mediation efforts seem destined to fail.
Join Peter Lavelle as he CrossTalks with Daniel McAdams, Hall Gardner, and Alexandre Guerreiro for a deep, no-holds-barred discussion.
🔥 Watch now, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and turn on the notification bell for more critical insights!
#CrossTalk
#UkraineConflict
#Trump
#PeacePlan
#Ceasefire
#Russia
#USPolitics
#Geopolitics
#UkraineWar
#Washington
#SecurityIssues
#Mediation
#GlobalPolitics
#WorldNews
#BreakingNews
#DanielMcAdams
#HallGardner
#AlexandreGuerreiro
#PoliticalAnalysis
#PeterLavelle
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Crosstalk, where all things are considered. I'm Peter Lavelle.
00:24Is Trump's plan to end the Ukraine conflict a dead letter on arrival?
00:28A ceasefire is not peace. Freezing the conflict does not address security issues.
00:34Washington provoked this conflict. This is why Trump's attempts to mediate is doomed to fail.
00:49Crosstalk in Ukraine, I'm joined by my guest Daniel McAdams in Lake Jackson.
00:53He is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
00:56In Paris, we have Paul Gardner. He is a professor in the Department of History and Politics at the American University of Paris.
01:04And in Lisbon, we cross to Alexander Guerrero. He is an international legal analyst.
01:08All right, gentlemen, Crosstalk rules in effect. That means you can jump anytime you want.
01:10And I always appreciate it. Daniel, the title of this program is called Final Offer.
01:15At least that's how it's being spun by the Biden, excuse me, by the Trump people trying to end Biden's war,
01:22as the president tells us here. I'm very unimpressed, I must say, you know, agreeing that Crimea is sovereign Russia.
01:30Well, Russia doesn't care if the United States recognizes it or not one way or another.
01:34It's been that case since 2014. So, you know, I'm also talking about a creating a ceasefire.
01:43And that is also a dead letter because that doesn't bring peace. It won't resolve anything. Daniel.
01:52You know, it's insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
01:55And that would be the definition of the administration.
01:58The problem is they're proceeding from a set of false assumptions about the war in between Russia and Ukraine.
02:05And I use that term very carefully because they proceeded from a false set of assumptions.
02:10And so how can you proceed to resolve the price, the problem if you don't understand the problem?
02:15You know, Trump keeps sending Whitcoff back to Putin with the Kellogg plan over and over again.
02:22And Putin says, no, I don't want the Kellogg plan. We can't accept it.
02:25And he sends him back with the same plan again. So that's no way to conduct.
02:29It's unbelievable how much energy the Trump administration has expended on this problem and continues to expand.
02:39And now we have a situation. We have Rubio. We have J.D. Vance.
02:42We have Trump himself saying, listen, guys, if you don't knock it off and sit down and agree to our plan, we're going to walk away.
02:49And both sides say, OK, they keep sending Whitcoff back. So it's an absolute farce. It's a charade.
02:55You know, Alec, let's go to Paris Hall. One of the things that comes to mind watching this entire charade is that maybe Trump's plan is it is for it to fail, is to have the Russians and the Ukrainians, their vassal state to say no.
03:11I mean, is that a possibility? Is that part of the gambit? Because Trump wants to, quote unquote, walk away. Hall.
03:17Well, I hope to hell that that's not the case. I really believe Trump, when he came to office, saying he was going to make peace, even though in his first term he made no effort at all to enforce the Normandy agreements, to do anything.
03:32He actually boosted U.S. support for Ukraine during his first term.
03:40Not only that, Zelensky has just shown where Trump supported that they would never accept Russian control over Ukraine.
03:51America said that under Trump, and now Zelensky is throwing that back into Trump's face.
03:56So these, this is a really important, there's not going to be any step if the two sides, if Zelensky continues to say he will never accept the Russian control over Crimea.
04:12That's the first step. But then a ceasefire, as you said, is not sufficient.
04:15A peace will only come about if we have a sustainable peace in which there's an agreed new security order in Europe.
04:25And that was talked about by Medvev in 2008, and that's where the talk should have begun then, before the United States said they were going to expand NATO to Ukraine in some time in the future.
04:38And they've never even been honest about that. What a lie. United States have literally lied about that.
04:43Alexander, it's really quite remarkable. Actually, it's tragic because so many people have died.
04:51All of us on this program, you've been on here many, many times, and we've talked about Ukraine.
04:56And all of us come to the same conclusion, a new security arrangement for Europe.
05:02Oh, and guess what, Alexander? On December 15th, 2021, that's exactly what Russia sent to NATO and the United States.
05:11I mean, all of the destruction and death that has happened is a result of this, and the Russians haven't changed their position whatsoever.
05:19And even the Trump administration won't address them. I mean, what is Witkoff talking about when he comes to Moscow?
05:25Go ahead, Alexander.
05:27Well, on this specific case, I believe that at least we all always knew about which were the cards that Russia had on their hands since 2021 or 2014.
05:36At least that's a clear game that Russia is playing presently with the international community.
05:42So they never—Moscow never hid their real intentions, their real fears, and what they wanted to be fixed.
05:50It's nothing to do exactly with Ukraine. It's a matter of security and survival of Russia itself, but not only of Russia, but also with international community, as we all know.
06:00Because if we have specific tensions towards one major power, like Russia is, then I believe that we'll have a real global power problem around the world,
06:11because we'll have only one power dominating, all others trying to play and or to submit to the will of this only power,
06:19and we are not going to have a balanced world order, meaning that, in the end, what we have is a specific problem,
06:28because Ukraine is trying to show and to demonstrate that they have a strong position,
06:33and the European Union is now trying as well to play and to demonstrate to everyone everything, all the power that they never had,
06:42but that they want people to believe that they have.
06:44In the end, they always, depending on the European Union, they always relied on the United States.
06:49And presently, what we have is the European Union on a crossroads.
06:53They really need to choose if they want to submit to the Ukrainian will and play this war game,
06:59or if they want to accept Trump's plan and finally get some peace and bring some peace to the continent,
07:05because Europe, presently, is not in the position to play and to put even more attention to all this conflict.
07:15Europe needs, first, to get prosperity back to its continent, its major powers, like Germany and France.
07:23They all need to start thinking about their own people instead of keep flowing a lot of money and weapons to Ukraine,
07:29because Europe cannot survive a war in case of need.
07:33Well, but, Alexander, you could flip it on its head, and I'll throw this to Daniel,
07:39is that, you know, making Russia the eternal enemy works to the European Union's advantage,
07:45because it's a unifying element, OK?
07:47We have to prepare for war.
07:49I was reading that this afternoon.
07:50You know, we have to prepare for war in the next three years, OK?
07:54That means huge deficit spending, money they don't have.
07:57But what it does is it keeps them in charge because they need an enemy.
08:02And this is really quite dangerous for the entire continent.
08:06The Europeans, they could have played a pivotal role in the beginning of all of this.
08:12The Biden administration was driving it, but the Germans and the French and the British could have said,
08:18no, no, no, no, not on our continent here, but no, they abdicated their responsibility.
08:23Daniel?
08:25Well, it's what happens when you're led by failed, unelected politicians, which is what's happened to Europe.
08:29I mean, there was a time when the best and brightest had risen to the top in Europe.
08:34You know, even, I mean, people like De Gaulle and Mitterrand in France.
08:37And, you know, you're now led by people like Kayakalas and von der Leyen, you know, people who have no understanding of the world.
08:45What's happening with Europe, which is fascinating, is that not only is Europe becoming an adversary, has been an adversary of Russia,
08:51but Europe now is an adversary of the United States in this process because Trump says, listen, Zelensky,
08:56you've got to sit down and start listening and start accepting some of these deals.
09:00Zelensky runs to London or Paris and they say, don't worry, we'll take care of you.
09:04We're going to up the spending, we're going to up the weapons, we're going to keep this war going.
09:08Europe has literally become an adversary to the United States in this process.
09:13And, you know, the sooner the administration understands this, the better off they'll be.
09:17Exactly.
09:18You know, Hal, one of the things that this program has discussed over the last few months is that the inability of the West to conduct diplomacy.
09:26It always has to be zero sum.
09:29The United States has forgotten what diplomacy is all about.
09:32We see it all over the place with Iran, what we see, what's going on with the genocide in Gaza and the inability.
09:39There are diplomatic tools to end the conflict in Ukraine.
09:41It's not that hard.
09:42Go ahead, Hal.
09:43Yeah, this is one of the great irons.
09:46The first problem is, is the NATO and EU double enlargement was never coordinated,
09:51either among the U.S. or Europeans or with Russia particularly.
09:55So that's part of the issue right there.
09:57And both of them were expanding into a region that they had no historical understanding of.
10:04So the second point is that the democratic liberal ideology, the end of history ideology, blinded us.
10:10We had this idea that the world was going to democratize without setting the geopolitical security requirements before we could reform countries.
10:22In other words, we are insisting we'll make a deal with you only when Russia democratizes, only when China democratizes.
10:28That's absurd.
10:29States have to deal with the situation that it is and work out their differences step by step.
10:36It takes time.
10:37So the whole approach of NATO enlargement and assuming that Russia was somehow going to democratize just has flown back in the faces of the United States and those neoliberals and neoconservatives who pushed for this enlargement.
10:50The people who really, the Cold Warriors, like Paul Nitza and George Kennan, they were against NATO enlargement precisely because they knew how diplomacy worked.
11:03They had worked on it in the Cold War.
11:05I mean, the Cold War wasn't great.
11:06It created a trillion-dollar arms industry, but at least we didn't have World War III.
11:12We are closer to World War III now than we ever were during the Cold War, and even maybe even closer than the Cuban Missile Crisis, but that can be debated.
11:21Yeah, with people with a much smaller IQ in charge.
11:25You know, well, it's absolutely true.
11:27I mean, you know, what is it?
11:29You hire clowns.
11:30You just get a circus, okay?
11:33Alexander, the Europeans, they're doing everything they can to continue this war.
11:39What did they get out of it?
11:40I don't think there's actually a way to get out of it, unless they accept Trump's plans, which means, although we don't know exactly on what kind of plans or details it consists,
11:53at least there's an intention to bring both parties to the table and at least try to find one or two points in common from where we can start discussing a future peace plan.
12:04This is really a real attempt to bring democracy and diplomacy.
12:08If we don't go and if we don't abide with this plan, if we don't want the parties to sit on the table and to reach at least some kind of understanding,
12:16our only way and our only solution in the future will be to go to war against Russia or against Canada.
12:24All right. I got to jump in here, General Luna.
12:26I have to go to a hard break.
12:27And after that hard break, we'll continue our discussion on Ukraine.
12:29Stay with RT.
12:34Welcome back to Crosstalk, where all things are considered.
12:40I'm Peter Lavelle.
12:41I'll remind you, we're discussing Ukraine.
12:51Okay, let's go back to Daniel in Lake Jackson.
12:54Considering the amount of hours that all of you have spent on this program over the years, particularly during the course of this conflict here,
13:02it's very clear what Russia expects, how Russia expects this conflict to end.
13:08Well, Donald Trump is not presenting that here.
13:11Donald Trump is threatening to throw in the towel, as it were.
13:14Daniel, is that credible?
13:16And if he did, what would it look like?
13:18I mean, if only he would.
13:20I mean, he got it for a few minutes when he said this is Biden's war.
13:25He could have come into office and said, look, this is Biden's war.
13:28I want nothing to do with it.
13:29I was elected on a plan to end wars.
13:32The best way to end it is to walk away.
13:33That's what you have to do.
13:34But the neocons, A, they won't let him.
13:37And B, the information that he's getting stovepiped up to him is incorrect information.
13:40And we know that's been the case all along.
13:42Russia's about to lose.
13:44Russia's economy is in tatters.
13:45Well, you know, we're about to lose.
13:47Oh, it's a stalemate.
13:48All of these things are false information that are being fed to him.
13:51And so his decisions are based on false information.
13:54The reality is something very radically different.
13:57We actually republished an article this week by Brian Berletic, who made an excellent point,
14:01which is the fundamental point that is not understood, which is that the United States
14:05is acting as a mediator in this conflict.
14:08Yep.
14:08Whereas in reality, it is a negotiator because it is a war between the United States and Russia.
14:14Exactly.
14:14So you can't continue with this charade that the U.S. is going to be an honest broker and
14:19an honest mediator.
14:20If anything, we've known from the New York Times piece, which was not a surprise to any
14:24of the four of us here, and pieces that have been published all along, this is the United
14:28States proxy war against Russia.
14:30Ukraine is a minor player in this farce.
14:34And all the more so, Hall, is that the problem that the Europeans and the Americans, particularly
14:40the Trump administration here, is that they're not focused on peace.
14:45And they're focused on all these other kinds of things.
14:48What they're focused on is, how can we have a strategic defeat for Russia?
14:52That's what their goal is.
14:54And that's what they're working towards.
14:56And that's why they're so frustrated, because they're not achieving it.
14:59But none of them are interested in peace.
15:03And as all of us know, it has nothing to do with Ukraine.
15:07Go ahead, Hall.
15:07Yeah, I tend to agree with that.
15:10I would step back a bit.
15:12I still think the threat to pull away from the talks is in part aimed at getting Ukraine
15:19on board.
15:19Well, what do you mean, get Ukraine on board?
15:26Where do they get a vote in this?
15:28Where do they get a vote?
15:29They don't.
15:30No.
15:30You know, I really want to make it clear to everybody.
15:33Ukraine is not a victim here.
15:34It's it volunteered.
15:36It's it volunteered for this duty.
15:39So they don't get a vote.
15:40Keep going.
15:42Well, the point is that that right now, Ukraine will not accept Russian control of Crimea
15:47as long as that.
15:48Well, so what?
15:49So what?
15:49Well, so what?
15:51They've had control of it since 2014.
15:55Right.
15:55But the war will just continue.
15:57That's what I'm trying to say.
15:57Trump Trump is going to focus on China.
15:59He doesn't care about what's going on.
16:01This is where I disagree with the previous comment.
16:03Trump is more focused on China and he wants the Europeans to take over.
16:06So if the Europeans take over, that means more war.
16:09There will be no peace agreement because they're not talking peace, as you said.
16:12Do you really think that the Europeans are going to?
16:14I think it's a huge bluff.
16:16I really believe it.
16:17I don't think they have the resolve.
16:20Their their electorates are not going to support this.
16:22We see this.
16:23Well, the rise of the populist parties are all against this here.
16:28OK, or or or or or or they cancel an election like they did in Romania.
16:33I see it more as a bluff.
16:36I'm sorry to keep going.
16:38Well, no, it's OK.
16:38I accept that point of view, because there's a significant dissidence against dissent against
16:43the continual support for Ukraine here in Europe.
16:46I feel I see it in France all the time.
16:48But the French are using it to build up their nuclear capabilities.
16:52They want to create a nuclear defense over over all of Europe.
16:56The Germans are for the first time talking about massive military support for Ukraine.
17:01The Swedes are doing the same.
17:02And you see the the bulk the Baltic states also talking in military terms.
17:10So the talk among the leadership is real.
17:13And in my view, if Trump pulls out and as you said, he's he's kind of caught between wanting
17:20to negotiate or what I call Trump a schizoid between being a militarist and an appeaser.
17:25He can't figure out where he is.
17:27And so if if he pulls out entirely, we won't even have an appeaser on in charge of the Europeans
17:34will find themselves confronted with their contradictions and where they'll have to decide
17:40whether how much to support Ukraine or not.
17:42And I don't see I don't see, as you said, I there I agree with you.
17:46I don't see any real peace talks coming, any real negotiation for peace at the moment.
17:51Alexander, is Russia a threat to Europe?
17:55Absolutely not.
17:56Not only to Europe, but it's also not a threat to anywhere, anyone in the world,
18:01because Russia, what Russia only wants is to protect itself.
18:05It's its survival, its existence, its continuation.
18:08And what we have witnessed until now is only answers from the Russian side after any other
18:16threats attempt to attack Russia.
18:19And I mean the European Union, I mean NATO.
18:21So usually it's Russia's answer to any kind of provocations coming from the West or from
18:28anywhere in the world.
18:29I don't see any kind of intention from the Russian side to be a threat.
18:31And let me clarify this, Peter.
18:33It's that it frightens me more and more to hear many European Union politicians trying
18:39to brainwash the electors in order to say that Russia has no power, that Russia is bluffing,
18:47that Russia is presently no military power in order to make people accept that we really
18:53need to go to war to Russia.
18:54And we hear it often more and more here in Europe that there are a lot of people, Vox
18:59Pop, saying that we really need to go to war to defeat Russia.
19:04And this concerns me because people here have no idea what this will mean for the European
19:09Union itself, for the world as a whole.
19:11This is a matter of concern.
19:12People have no idea.
19:13It's not debatable here.
19:15For example, the legitimacy that Russia has over Crimea, over Donbass, over all of the regions,
19:21on my opinion, it's not debatable, and it's totally clear that Russia has sovereignty
19:27over all these lands.
19:29However, here, people don't even dare to discuss.
19:32They just say things on a very harsh way because the only speech here is we need to defeat Russia.
19:38But why do we need to defeat someone that never posed a threat to us?
19:44Russia never threatened to attack us.
19:46Russia has no imperialistic ambitions to progress and to dominate the European continent.
19:53So what we hear is exactly the opposite.
19:57Is these neocons and all these globalists here now ruling over the European Union, demonstrating
20:04and attempting to create more pressure and more tension and trying to reach the heart
20:09of the power of Russia in order to change an entire society?
20:12Yeah, well, you know, but what they're doing is destroying themselves in the process, okay?
20:18That's one of the great ironies of all of this, when you look at the sanctions and all
20:22this.
20:23And no European country is going to put this to a vote, that's for sure.
20:27Daniel, you know, one of the, you know, very broadly, one of the things for maybe think
20:32tankers and some politicians, commentators, is that the outcome of this conflict is going
20:39to reverse the outcome of the Cold War.
20:42Russia was, quote unquote, defeated in the Cold War.
20:45That's not the narrative here.
20:46And we can have a separate program on that.
20:48But that is a reversal of the common opinion that the Soviets slash the Russians lost the Cold War.
20:57They're not supposed to succeed.
20:59Daniel.
20:59Well, the one thing that's missed in this whole discussion, not just here, but in the
21:04broader discussion between the U.S., the Europeans and the Russians and Ukrainians, is that Russia
21:09is winning this war.
21:10And you just said it yourself, Peter.
21:12That's one thing that never, it's like the elephant in the room that no one's allowed
21:15to talk to.
21:15We're talking about Crimea.
21:17We should be talking about Odessa.
21:19We should be talking about Transnistra.
21:20You know, I mean, as, who was it, as Aristevich said this week, he said, why should we accept
21:27giving up these four territories now?
21:30Because in six months, it'll be six territories.
21:32And if we wait a year, it'll be eight territories.
21:35He's a very unique person with interesting insights.
21:38That's the bottom line.
21:39Russia is winning this war.
21:41But the rest of the world acts as if it's a stalemate.
21:44It's a draw.
21:45So Ukraine gets to decide, well, we won't accept this.
21:48You're getting wiped out on the battlefield.
21:49You don't get to make those decisions, you know?
21:52I mean, we didn't ask Hitler, you know, would you accept half of Europe after World War II
21:57if he had survived?
21:59It just, war doesn't work this way.
22:01That's right.
22:02You know, Hal, one of the things that has been so frustrating for me is that geopolitics is
22:07suspended in midair so often.
22:12To end a conflict, you need a peace.
22:14And then the conflict ends.
22:15You don't have a ceasefire and then a peace.
22:17You have a peace first.
22:18That's how you do it.
22:20Historically, that's how it works.
22:21Go ahead, Hal.
22:23Well, this is the question.
22:25You know, to what extent, I mean, if Ukraine and the Europeans take over and Trump dumps
22:30the whole thing and pulls back, will they stop and really work for peace?
22:35It's not the way I see the Europeans talking right now.
22:38That's where I was agreeing.
22:39The neocons in Europe, look at Macron.
22:42He switched from talking to Putin, supposedly, to now boosting up French and European military
22:50capabilities.
22:51And what worries me is that there won't be a peace, that there will be the Caesar of Odessa.
22:59Now, is it in the Russian interest to really expand beyond where it is?
23:03I don't really think it is.
23:04And so therefore, you need both sides to be able to hit each other enough until they realize
23:10that they can't go any farther.
23:12But if the Ukrainians don't start realizing that they have lost the war, as I was trying
23:16to say earlier, then they will continue this war and we're going to see more people dead
23:21and more carnage.
23:24I really think that's why I was trying to say Trump has to stay in the, even if he's
23:29not entirely in the middle mediating, he still has to keep the ball rolling.
23:34Well, yeah, but Hall, we're rapidly running out of time.
23:39Alexander Hall brings up a really good point.
23:44You know, Trump is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, because if he stays in, the war
23:50continues, meaning he broke his campaign.
23:52Promise I can end this conflict in 24 hours.
23:54I mean, and that's why he said on Air Force One, this is Biden's war.
23:59This is Biden's war.
23:59No, Mr. Trump, it's your war now.
24:02Go ahead, Alexander.
24:03Yes, yes.
24:04Actually, he inherited that war.
24:06So if presently he's still providing support to the Ukrainian effort, war effort, actually
24:11this is also his war.
24:12And he needs to do one simple thing, which is cut the support, military support to Ukraine,
24:18force Zelensky, or at least somebody who will come after him to celebrate any kind of peace
24:23deal with Russia.
24:24I mean, take the opportunity to celebrate the, considering the actual situation now in the
24:29battlefield, because if you wait more months, situation will get even worse, or even for
24:35Zelensky himself, he even can get killed.
24:37He should be toppled.
24:39I mean, look at Trump's efforts in order to try to bring a replacement for Zelensky.
24:45So basically, this is a strategy that needs to be done.
24:47All right, gentlemen, that's all the time.
24:50We have fascinating discussion.
24:52We didn't solve the problem.
24:53We're going to keep working on it.
24:54In the meantime, I want to thank my guests in Paris, Lake Jackson, and in Lisbon.
24:58And of course, I want to thank our viewers for watching us here at RT.
25:01See you next time.
25:01Remember, Rostock Rules.