Donald Trump is parroting the Kremlin again with his insane Ukraine demand

How much of your country would you be willing to give up under invasion?

Manchester? Our capital city? Maybe the Welsh coastline?

That is the unenviable question facing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Yesterday, in a stunningly unsettling statement, Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of prolonging a ‘killing field’ by refusing to cede Crimea to Russia.

The message of this is clear: The bloodshed in Ukraine is not Vladimir Putin’s fault, but Zelensky’s because he refuses to give up Ukrainian territory in an illegal and unprovoked invasion.

Let’s pause and ask ourselves: Would we shrug off the South East and West of England? Would we look the other way if they took the whole of Scotland? Because all of that combined is the equivalent land that Russia has taken from Ukraine. 

I know there’s a North-South divide in the UK, but as a proud Northerner, I wouldn’t sign off on the annihilation of London, no matter what.

France wouldn’t calmly hand back Normandy, 81 years after thousands of our allies died on their beaches to liberate Europe.

America wouldn’t accept Russia taking the East Coast, leaving New York, Washington DC, Georgia and Florida under occupation. So why is anyone – least of all the President of the United States – even entertaining the idea that Ukraine should do just that?

Surrendering land not just once, but again and again, to satisfy Putin’s expansionism and reward his violence only guarantees its return.

Did we learn nothing from Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler? It didn’t work. 

Crimea is not just some abstract territory on a map. It is part of Ukraine in the same way that Manchester, Edinburgh, and London are part of the United Kingdom.

Crimea’s annexation in 2014 was illegal, and the territory is still recognised as Ukrainian by the international community, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United Nations.

Crimea has been an integral part of Ukraine since 1954, and Russia’s illegal invasion in 2014 marked the first forcible redrawing of European borders since World War II. There was some outrage at the time, but Western leaders essentially hoped that looking the other way might buy stability and keep things ‘settled’.

So, you see, we’ve tried ‘letting them have it’ to put an end to Russia’s advances. Look where that got us.

To now suggest that Ukraine’s refusal to legitimise Russia’s illegal invasion is ‘prolonging’ the war is not just callous; it is part of a worrying broader trend.

Trump has insisted he will ‘get’ Greenland, and repeatedly promised Canada will become the 51st state.

This is part of a worldview in which land is something to be traded like hotel properties on a Monopoly board. It’s a mentality that sees conquest as negotiation, and borders as bargaining chips.

But this is not the first time Trump has parroted Kremlin talking points, nor is it the first time he has deployed poor diplomacy. 

He’s not ending the war – he’s offering Putin a shortcut. History repeatedly and relentlessly teaches us that peace built on the foundations of territorial surrender isn’t peace, and it doesn’t last.

People like Putin always want more. We must reject this moral equivalence between aggressor and victim.

There is no middle ground: Putin’s Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim of an unprovoked, illegal invasion.

It’s as simple as that. Russia must not be allowed a single inch of Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine’s resistance to occupation is not the cause of war; it is the resistance to it. They are the shield at Europe’s edge, holding the line for all of us. 

If we ever lose sight of that – even for one minute – the world’s dictators and fascists will redraw borders at gunpoint. Then don’t be surprised when the tanks roll up to your own door with paperwork, a flag, and the same chilling logic that let Crimea fall.

For Ukraine, peace and freedom are not inherited – they are earned, defended, and renewed.

Both will come, but not by surrendering.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@usnewsrank.com. 

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