12/5/2025 — America’s Magical Thinking About Ukraine — A Bad Deal Is Worse Than No Deal

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a howitzer near Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, November 2025Stringer / Reuters

SERGEY RADCHENKO is Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Europe.

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump was disappointed when a meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough in ending the war in Ukraine. “We didn’t get there,” Trump acknowledged at the time. Putin had evinced little interest in ceding ground on his maximalist demands, making a peace deal look remote, but the entirely predictable failure of the Alaska misadventure evidently did not deter Trump from trying again. In November, a 28-point peace plan—which media reports suggest was put together by both Russian and American …

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