Understanding the United Kingdom’s fake Ukraine peace play

A strange reversal is underway in the annals of modern British foreign policy. After having been one of the unremitting supporters of the Ukrainian cause, at least since February 2022, British pundits and officials are making clear their support for a negotiated settlement that would end the Ukraine War, ‘The National Interest’ notes.

How the UK Changed Its Mind About Ukraine—Sort Of

In just a few months, the British have gone from crying “Havoc!” and letting slip the dogs of war against Russia in Ukraine to quietly encouraging Kyiv to embrace a settlement to end the war — no matter how distasteful it might be.

This is less a change of heart and more of a wily wait-and-see approach. The British government does not actually favor a peace deal that would address, as the Russians constantly insist, the “root causes” of the Ukraine War. Instead, London wants to buy time for Ukraine to restore its fighting capabilities and be prepared to reopen hostilities at a more favorable point.

To be clear: the British and the Europeans do not want a permanent peace in Ukraine. They want to essentially wait out the Trump administration, which has around 35 months left in office—and is likely to be hamstrung if the Democrats regain control of one or both houses of Congress after the midterm elections in November 2026.

British Peace Talk Isn’t Really About Peace

Britain and Europe assume that they can spend the next few years restoring Ukrainian fighting capabilities and then reopen hostilities with Russia once a more amenable American president is elected in 2028.

There have also been cogitations at the highest levels of power in Europe and in Britain about the future of Volodymyr Zelensky as president of Ukraine. After suspending constitutionally mandated elections last year, with no return to normal democracy on the horizon, Zelensky has been riding his wartime image to sustain his political legitimacy in a Ukraine that is increasingly ravaged by a seemingly endless war with Russia.

Even Zelensky’s most ardent supporters in Europe and Britain recognize that this is unsustainable. How could they purport to be supporting a besieged democracy if that democracy has suspended constitutional provisions indefinitely and insists on fighting to the last man before any elections can be held?

How the West Plans to Change Horses in Ukraine

This is what the Europeans and British really mean when they say they’re taking a more active role in Ukraine as America seeks to step back from the conflict. It isn’t genuine. They’re just going to buy Ukraine more time, ensure that an even more warlike leadership succeeds the oligarchy that currently runs Ukraine, and then restart hostilities once Trump is out of office.

This is precisely what Europe did during the Minsk Protocol negotiations. Indeed, such perfidy was already admitted to after the fact by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who once admitted that Europe was never serious about the Minsk protocols — and that they were merely using those negotiations to “buy time” for Ukraine’s military buildup.

With the revelations that the Europeans were not being above-board with the Russians during the Minsk Accord negotiations, and as even the Wall Street Journal recently admitted, Russia has gained the upper hand in the Ukraine War, any appearance of backsliding by the Europeans in terms of a potential peace deal negotiation might end Russia’s involvement in those talks entirely.

All this double-dealing and these machinations for acquiring greater leverage in a conflict that is not only a peripheral concern for the United States and a minor one at best for the UK, shows how badly the European and British elite have miscalculated.

These current talks are not a chance to once more buy their side in the conflict time and to restart the war on more fortuitous footing.

For London and Brussels, war is no longer a means to a strategic end. It’s simply the end; anything to keep the Americans from walking away more fully from NATO and the European project. And the Ukraine War is the great gateway to ensuring permanent American buy-in to this scheme.

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