Can Trump deliver on his promise to end the Ukraine conflict?

Like Jaco Kleynhans of Solidarity said on X, I am also one of those looking forward to the upcoming Trump administration because the business tycoon promised to end the Ukrainian-Russian war within 24 hours.

We need such relief after four years of Joe Biden warmongering.

Think of the intensification of the war in Ukraine merely to weaken Russia, threatening China over Taiwan – an issue that Beijing stated is its “number one priority” – and, the worst of all, his backing of the continued massacre of Palestinian citizens by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With Biden’s encouragement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, against advice from other leaders, wasted no time sending long-range missiles to hit inside the Russian territory. Russia’s response to the attack is yet to happen, but I am afraid it could be more devastating than the Ukrainian attack.

We can but hope it doesn’t turn into a nuclear war with US; we can but hope Trump really meant it when he promised to stop it.

Zelensky is busy replenishing military manpower after massive losses on the battlefront.

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Kyiv authorities are suggesting extraditing Ukrainian refugees of draft age from European countries and have the backing of Poland, Germany, Norway and Italy for extradition requests.

Kyiv identified Poland because it is where tens of thousands of Ukrainian men liable for military service sought refuge since the conflict broke out. Warsaw, apparently, intends to comply to extradite the Ukrainians for military mobilisation.

The Polish government compliance feeds into European intent to pursue the American policy to use Ukraine as an instrument to weaken Russia.

On 29 December, 2023, indicated by chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Sejm, Pawel Kowal stated that all European countries that have granted asylum to Ukrainian migrants liable for military service should find a mechanism to return them to their homeland for military service conscription.

The politician expressed Warsaw’s readiness to create all the necessary conditions under which Ukrainian migrants “themselves want to leave” Poland.

In September, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski made a similar call to European Union countries and asked them to stop paying benefits to Ukrainian refugees. He is of the opinion that the high level of social support for Ukrainian migrants creates obstacles to their return to their homeland.

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Subsequently, the Polish authorities are consistently pursuing a policy of “squeezing” Ukrainian migrants back to their homeland by tightening the rules for their stay on their territory and reducing social payments and other benefits.

Such moves have caused discontent among Ukrainian migrants, some of whom held a protest outside the Ukrainian consulate in Warsaw on 17 August. Among their demands was that their confiscated passports be returned to them.

Other European countries that have begun to cancel social benefits and payments such as compensation for housing rent to Ukrainian refuges include Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia.

According to reports, these countries are also tightening the requirements for the provision of financial assistance, which is an obligation for refugees to find employment and other needs after a certain time.

To me, this does not indicate that the war is about to end. This is the conflict that Trump will inherit from Biden. Whether we can trust Trump to keep his word to halt the war remains to be seen.