Hello and welcome to the Battleground podcast with me Saul David and Roger Morehouse.

Well, it seems that we're entering the endgame for the Trump administration's

peace initiative and the omens for an agreement did not look good. At the weekend, Putin announced

the 30-hour Easter truth that involved, I suppose, inevitably numerous Russian violations in the

form of artillery and drone attacks, and that was, according to Jean-Noelle Barreau,

the French Foreign Minister, little more than, and I quote, a charm operation aimed at preventing

President Trump from becoming impatient and angry. I couldn't have put it better myself.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, was making it clear that its patience was not inexhaustible

and that if a peace deal was not inexhaustible,

and that if a peace deal was not agreed upon soon, it would walk away. It was trying to put pressure on both warring parties, of course, but particularly the Ukrainians who have the most to lose

from a bad deal. Yes, and just how bad the deal the Americans proposed seven-point plan would be

for the Ukrainians,

was revealed on Tuesday this week by the Daily Telegraph.

Not only would Trump let Putin keep almost all the territory he has seized,

he would bar Ukraine from joining NATO and provide it with no clear US security guarantee.

Even more controversially, the plan would offer a formal

recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the region of Ukraine that Putin illegally annexed

in 2014, thus violating a central principle of international law and of the post-1945 world order,

that no country can annex the territory of another

by force. There would be, moreover, a virtual freezing of the front lines and a de facto US

recognition that almost all the Ukrainian territory that is currently occupied would be taken by Russia.

So what's in this plan for Ukraine?

...