It is no longer about Ukraine’s sovereignty, democracy, or the blood of its fallen. It is about real estate. Trump and Putin appear ready to redraw borders like brokers at a Manhattan property show. The Kremlin brings the tanks, Trump brings the signatures, and Ukraine? Ukraine brings the land.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, once a comedian on stage, is now cast in the cruelest skit of history: to stand before Trump in the White House, under chandeliers and cameras, while being told that his country must be partitioned to “end the war.” A forced peace, a coerced surrender, wrapped in the language of “deal-making.”
The irony is poisonous. Trump, who claims “America First,” now wants Ukraine Last — reduced, carved, parceled out like a bankrupt casino on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Putin, smiling like a fox fattened on global cowardice, couldn’t have asked for a better partner than a man who confuses foreign policy with property flipping.
Europe watches with clenched jaws. Leaders in Paris, Berlin, Warsaw — all know that the “Ukraine question” is not Ukrainian alone, but European to the bone. A partitioned Ukraine is a destabilized Europe, an open door to Russian expansion, and a betrayal of every European value paraded in Brussels conferences. Yet Europe dithers. Their support for Zelensky “depends” — depends on whether he bows or breaks in Washington. Europe, which should lead, is once again waiting on Washington’s mood swings.
Trump sees Ukraine as a bargaining chip for his red-carpet friendship with Putin, a stage-prop for his “I alone can make peace” narrative. But peace built on partition is not peace; it is a funeral dressed up as a treaty. It is Yalta revisited — Churchill and Roosevelt in 1945 giving Stalin half of Europe. Except now it is Trump, with no cigar, handing Putin what his armies could not win outright.
Zelensky faces an impossible test. To stand up to Trump is to risk isolation. To give in is to betray not only Ukraine but the idea of Europe itself. History’s burden now rests on his shoulders: resist being strong-armed in Washington, or watch his country auctioned off at the geopolitical bazaar.
Make no mistake: Ukraine is not Trump’s to sell, not Putin’s to buy, not Europe’s to delay. It is Europe’s frontline, democracy’s trench. And if Zelensky bows to pressure, the next partitioned country will not be across the Black Sea — it will be in the heart of Europe.
Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN) 