Things are heating up for Ukraine now that Trump has presented his so-called 28-point “peace plan,” which is nothing of the sort, and he’s giving president Volodymyr Zelenskyy one week to agree to it, or he is threatening to withdraw American support, even though that support has been mercurial and dwindling for the past year. Nevertheless, they have some key defensive technologies that Ukraine relies upon, particularly for air defences. But in no way is this plan at all acceptable, and is little more than a demand for Ukraine to capitulate, and to pay America for the privilege because Trump is a gangster running a protection racket.

This is what a protection racket looks like, although they are rarely put in writing

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-11-21T17:56:08.496Z

The “plan” (full text here) proposes that Ukraine turn over remaining areas in the regions Putin has been unable to conquer after four years, which are essentially a fortress belt. Turning those over, plus reducing the size of Ukraine’s army, is essentially an invitation for Putin to come back and invade with nothing to stop him the next time. The “deal” wants Ukraine to forgo NATO membership, which essentially gives Putin a veto over NATO. It wants Ukraine to pay the US for security guarantees, but no agreement with Trump is worth the paper it’s written on. It wants Ukraine to abandon any attempt to hold Russia accountable for its actions, including mass torture and crimes against humanity. And it wants Russia’s frozen assets returned. So Russia gives up nothing, and it positions itself to fully conquer Ukraine in a few months or a year, when Trump gets bored, and then creates an existential threat for the rest of Europe given that Putin will have gotten rid of the biggest obstacle to his expansionary plans.

Zelenskyy says he will work earnestly with the Americans on this, but that he won’t betray Ukraine’s interests, which pretty much means that he can’t accept these terms. European leaders say that they’re standing behind Ukraine, because they know the danger. But some of the reporting in Canada is abysmal, treating the plan like it’s serious when getting defence minister David McGuinty to comment on it. At least he says that any plan has to be “acceptable,” but this plan clearly is not, so I’m not sure why anyone is bothering to ask if he supports it because there is no way he could or should. This “plan” merely confirms that there is no point in relying on the US any longer, which means that Europe and Canada need to step up right now, and give Ukraine all of the support possible right now because anything less is a disaster for the future of western democracies.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-11-21T14:24:03.043Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia claims it has taken a string of four settlements in the Donetsk region, which Ukraine denies. They also claim that 5000 Ukrainian troops are trapped in the Kharkiv region.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney secured a pledge of up to $70 billion in investments from the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, starting with $1 billion to critical mineral processing.
• Carney is now in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the G20 meeting, which the Americans are boycotting.
• Carney is expected to sign an “energy accord” MOU with Alberta on Thursday.
• David McGuinty announced $29 million to create a new defence research lab for classified research projects in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
• Maninder Sidhu says the $5 billion trade diversification corridors fund will help expand export capacity to non-US markets.
• Lina Diab says the government will pause private refugee sponsorship until 2027 (which is really going to hurt a lot of people who urgently need resettlement).
• The budget implementation bill contains provisions designed to speed up the approvals of the high-speed rail project.
• The federal government’s compensation for gun retailers for their inventories of weapons that were subsequently banned has been delayed to a future date.
• Canada Post and its union have reached an agreement in principle on a new contract, and could avoid more labour disruptions for a second Christmas.
• The expert report mandated by the pharmacare agreement with the NDP recommends the government do what Trudeau tried to do for eight years.
• Saab’s CEO says any plan to build jets in Canada will depend on Canada buying them (which was pretty obvious from the start).
• Canada has seen a tourism boom while travel to the US continues to plummet.
• The Logic talks to small manufacturers in the US who are suffering both from tariffs and from their loss of Canadian customers.
• Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner warns that the rule of law and judicial independence are under attack around the world.
• It sounds like Conservative Matt Jeneroux told Mark Carney he planned to resign before he announced it, raising more questions about his planned floor-crossing.
• Conservatives have alerted the Centre for Cyber Security and the RCMP after the financial information of 15 of their MPs was leaked.
• Justin Ling points to the ways in which social media boost false perceptions of crime, which in turn justifies heavy-handed political responses.
• Ling also looks into the connections between the Trump family and  crypto mining operations in Canada, as they build themselves a kleptocrat’s escape hatch.
• Matt Gurney outlines the difficult choice facing Carney with regard to the fighter jet procurement.

Odds and ends:

Hey BSers! Need a copy of my book, for yourself or for a holiday gift? @dundurnpress.bsky.social is having their holiday sale! Use code HOLIDAY25 to save 25% on this, or any Dundurn book. Check out my book #UnbrokenMachine, or the book I contributed a chapter to, #RoyalProgress.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T02:01:04.435Z

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