Rolf Ivar Skår
Strategist | Geopolitical Analyst | Advocate for Democracy & Global Cooperation.
Norges Handelshøyskole (NHH) Visit Rjukan
Rjukan, Vestfold og Telemark, Norway
As of December 2025, the situation is clearer than it is often described.
Ukraine has supported multiple initiatives that could open a path to peace — provided they respect sovereignty, security guarantees, and international law.
Europe has committed long-term political and economic support.
The United States has engaged diplomatically.
Russia has rejected all of it.
Not with counterproposals.
Not with compromise.
But with delay, silence, and demands incompatible with peace.
This is not a failure of diplomacy.
It is evidence of the absence of intent.
Peace requires one basic condition:
that war is no longer treated as a legitimate tool for political ends.
Vladimir Putin has never accepted that premise.
When territory remains a bargaining chip,
when deported children are not returned,
when ceasefires are conditioned on the normalization of occupation —
the problem is not insufficient dialogue.
The problem is the lack of willingness to end the war.
This is why clarity matters now.
A peace that rewards aggression is not stability.
It is postponement.
The path back from this war does not run through ever-new “openings” that one party consistently closes.
It runs through accountability, endurance, and a firm boundary around what cannot be negotiated away.
Ukraine is defending its country.
Europe is defending a norm.
And in this moment, it is that norm — not rhetoric — that will determine whether peace in Europe still has meaning.
Comment from :
From a purely geopolitical perspective, why would russia accept any peace deal at this point that requires them to cede anything back to Ukraine?Russia has the crimea and they have the territory they want in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine no longer has the manpower to mount effective counterattacks. So short of Europe or the United States involving themselves through direct military intervention Russia has effectively won.
Don’t get me wrong I am not suggesting that Russia is the good guy here. I’m only pointing out the reality of the situation
History matters, especially when judging intent and outcomes.Russia has never negotiated from a position of defeat, nor accepted “peace” framed as surrender. From day one, Moscow stated its objectives: Donetsk, Luhansk, Donbas. That has not changed. After more than a million dead and hundreds of billions spent, the assumption that Russia would economically collapse has proven false. Instead, Europe has depleted stockpiles, exposed its military dependence, and revealed that without the US it lacks credible deterrence. The United States has now made clear this is not its war. That changes the strategic equation whether we like it or not.Peace is not about moral narratives, but about power, endurance, and achievable end states. Ignoring that doesn’t defend norms — it prolongs destruction. Sometimes the problem is not a lack of clarity, but a refusal to accept reality.
Ambassador Leonel Teller Sánchez
If the aim is to be strictly factual, the statement that “Europe has committed long-term political and economic support. The United States has engaged diplomatically” requires clarification. U.S. involvement has been defined primarily by substantial congressionally authorized financial and military assistance, not diplomacy alone.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the U.S. Congress has authorized approximately $174–$182.8 billion in Ukraine-related emergency funding.
Of that total:
• $65.9–$67 billion has been committed to military and security assistance for Ukraine.
• $44–$50 billion has been allocated for economic, humanitarian, and governance support.
Total U.S. contributions to NATO common budgets from 2022 through 2025: €1.55 billion
Characterizing U.S. involvement mainly as diplomatic engagement understates the scale and nature of these legally authorized commitments.
U.S. Department of State Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Ambassador Leonel Teller Sánchez : Thanks for the info on how the fiscal terms work 👍 I think the underlying premise of what I said (and I think what the author also said) was that what POTUS has said publicly regarding Ukraine aid differs greatly from the previous administration. Hence the reason why some might interpret how commited the US is to its ukranian and european allies. Factually in politics can be interpreted in different ways. If Im not mistaken congress in a bipartisan agreement also set limits on the president withdrawing from NATO. I dont think this is coincidential. But AGAIN i think it was good news that the US will keep supporting ukrane, regardless of who is in the white house 👍
What is truly amazing is that Europeans criticize Trump while offering no credible path to peace themselves.
Let’s face it: Biden and Europe could not even get Putin to the table. Why? Because they came across as feeble and toothless—heavy on statements, light on enforceable power.
As of December 2025, Europe has pledged support, but it has not shown the leverage needed to change Moscow’s calculus. Summits, speeches and funding packages don’t move Vladimir Putin. Power does.
And the only Western leader with a realistic chance of testing whether Putin will negotiate—rather than stall, dictate terms, and weaponize “talks”—is Trump.
That isn’t cheerleading; it’s realism. And here’s the uncomfortable contingency: if Trump walks, Europe doesn’t get a better plan—it gets the same war with less leverage and security.
So criticize Trump all you want but he is the only chance Europe has, so deal with it!
Why would Russia agree to suspend the very reasons behind its invasion in 2022? Who in their right mind would seek to placate a loosing opponent?
Did Europe in WW2 negotiate peace with nazi Germany when their armies were outside the gates of Berlin? Did the Americans negotiate peace with the Japanese?
This is not an EU ponzi scheme. This is good-ole war. And in war the winning side does not negotiate it’s tactical and strategic advantage…. EVER!
Z should have taken the deal offered in 2022. It was not a good deal for Ukraine, but 4 years later and 2million Ukrainian casualties the situation today looks a lot grimmer.
So Ukraine has 2 bad choices here. Either take a worst deal than the one offered in 2022, or fight on and risk a total collapse of the front.
There’s a scary 3rd and 4th option that is being discussed behind closed doors through…. Bring EU manpower into the front and watch EU elites disintegrate as the body bags return home, or 4th fail to manage escalation and get into a shooting war were everything glows in the dark. Scary sh…t!!!
Kyiv Institute for European Integration
The “absence of intent” hides a much darker driver: Putin’s personal survival. For Vladimir Putin, the war has become a necessary shield against his own inner circle. In the unforgiving ecosystem of the Kremlin, a peace deal that involves compromise is not viewed as diplomacy, but as weakness. And for an autocrat, weakness is often fatal.
He knows that as long as the war continues, he is the indispensable War President. The moment the fighting stops without a total victory, the factions that have bled equity and influence will look for a scapegoat. The internal power struggle that awaits him is a far more immediate threat to his life than any external army. He isn’t just rejecting peace terms; he is avoiding the domestic reckoning that comes with them. The Kyiv Independent
The problem is that Russia has nothing to lose but its combat soldiers, and Ukraine has everything to lose, including its combat soldiers.
Russia must lose, if Europe is to survive.
It is hard to believe that that European leaders are even having discussions with Trump about Ukrainian security and its future.
Trump has already made it quite clear that he has sided with Putin and has no intention of helping Ukraine. His negotiating team are Russian assets working on behalf of Putin.
He will never honor any agreement that is made if it does not facilitate his desire to further take America into a partnership with Russia and other authoritarian governments.
Trump is promoting the concept of America pulling out of the G7 and developing and alliance with Russia, China and several other fascist states.
Trump is now currently working on four European countries withdrawing from the European Union, in order to expedite its destruction.
European leaders obviously are still unwilling to recognize nor accept that NATO must exist without America if it is to survive at all.
Zelensky, is being forced to give away Ukrainian territory as if it means nothing – it is capitulation.
The reality is if Putin conquers Ukraine he will attack Europe with the full support Trump.
He has already alluded to this, if not stated it. He only sees money in his pocket in every deal he makes.
…………………
A post from Rolf from 9 months ago ;
A Picture Worth a Thousand Words?
Here we see 41-year-old Donald Trump in Moscow, July 1987, invited by the Soviet Ambassador. At first glance, just another business trip—but was it more?
Former KGB officials, including Yuri Shvets, claim this visit was part of a Soviet strategy to cultivate Trump as a potential asset. Just two months after returning to New York, Trump paid nearly $100,000 for full-page ads in major newspapers, urging the U.S. to abandon its allies and let them fend for themselves. Sound familiar?
Fast forward to the 2000s:
🔍 The Trump Organization sold numerous properties to anonymous shell companies—many linked to Russian oligarchs.
🔍 In 2008, Trump sold his Palm Beach estate, Maison de L’Amitié, to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million—nearly double its market value.
Coincidence? Or a pattern?
Follow the money.
Rolf commented on his own post :
Wow—this post has now reached 7.5 million people in just ten days! Based on what I’ve seen about LinkedIn engagement, this likely places it among the most viral posts on the platform right now. To put it in perspective, LinkedIn posts are often considered ‘viral’ at 100,000 views, and even high-performing posts typically land in the low millions.
It’s amazing to see how much traction this conversation has gained. Thank you to everyone who has engaged, commented, and shared—this level of reach only happens when people find the topic worth discussing!
Curious: What do you think made this post resonate so widely?
Tim McLaughlin
Rolf Ivar Skår : because the World is wondering how this person became the President of the USA & how morally bankrupt he is & how this is affecting All The Countries of the World but especially Ukraine, Mexico, Canada, Greenland & Panama…and what the L-Term affects on Democracy, Honesty & Doing the Right Thing will be…people are wary
Rolf commented again :
🚨 ATTEMPTED CENSORSHIP IN ACTION 🚨
This post has now reached 8+ million views, and suddenly, a wave of new accounts is flooding the comments with Kremlin propaganda—while major pro-Ukraine voices are mysteriously being banned from LinkedIn.
❗️ For those watching, here’s how this works:
✅ Step 1: Russian-linked networks mass-report posts and accounts that challenge Putin’s narrative.
✅ Step 2: Automated moderation flags the content, even when it’s factual.
✅ Step 3: Voices exposing Russia’s war crimes are silenced—while Kremlin narratives spread freely.
📢 If you support free speech & Ukraine, here’s what you can do:
🔹 Engage – Like, comment, and share to make this post harder to suppress.
🔹 Tag LinkedIn Moderators – Let them know this is a coordinated attack.
🔹 Stay Vigilant – If pro-Ukraine voices are banned, make noise.
The best way to counter disinformation is visibility. Let’s not let the Kremlin control the narrative here.
Commenter Thomas D. Bohlen put it in very stark terms :
“The problem is that Russia has nothing to lose but its combat soldiers, and Ukraine has everything to lose, including its combat soldiers.
Russia must lose, if Europe is to survive.”
Has anyone in a position of power realised that inescapable fact yet?
It would appear not.
Sir Bill Browder knows it.
Jake Broe knows it.
Boris knows it.
Jonathan Fink knows it.
All Ukrainians know it.
“It is hard to believe that that European leaders are even having discussions with Trump about Ukrainian security and its future.”
Six and seven-year-olds are expected to start learning in first grade. When will Western politicians start learning the realities of this war and the new world order we’re in? They act like so much flotsam and jetsam, bobbing up and down helplessly as the waves carry them. It’s so sickening.
True poetry. 🙂
😄