Ex-Lithuanian FM: Ukraine Has Options—No to a Defeatist Deal
US President Donald Trump hosts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and European allies at the White House! (Image The White House)
Gabrielius Landsbergis says Europe must abandon “capitulation advice” and shift to sustained, strategic support—arguing Ukraine still has military options, leverage over Russia, and public resolve to resist any humiliating deal.
By TRH Foreign Affairs Desk
New Delhi, December 6, 2025 — Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis warned that Ukraine is being pushed toward a “defeatist path” as leaked details of a proposed peace deal spark pressure from abroad for Kyiv to concede.
Writing a detailed article on his website, Landsbergis said many advisers are “cowed by US pressure” or swayed by a narrative that Europe lacks the will or capability to support Ukraine into 2025.
While acknowledging a tough battlefield situation, wavering financial commitments from Europe, and the political strain of ongoing corruption investigations in Kyiv, Landsbergis argued none of this justifies “surrender.” Instead, he urged Ukraine to steer clear of premature capitulation, even if it means entering “stormier seas.”
Landsbergis pointed to Ukraine’s repeated ability to defy expectations—from halting Russia’s early march on Kyiv to retaking Kherson and Kharkiv. Every time analysts predicted collapse, he said, Ukraine held firm and Western support deepened. Today, new weapons, expanding drone capabilities, and attacks on Russia’s shadow oil fleet show Ukraine “is not without options.”
He argued that Russia, despite its aggression, is accumulating internal strain that could reshape the war’s trajectory. Economic pressure is beginning to affect urban Russians, he said, and sustained Ukrainian resistance could widen these rifts.
Europe, meanwhile, has become Ukraine’s largest supporter and may still shift from ad hoc assistance to a long-term strategic posture “existential to European survival.” Landsbergis said Donald Trump’s comments have forced Europe to confront hard questions about its own dignity and security responsibilities.
Crucially, he warned Western governments not to underestimate Ukrainian public sentiment. Soldiers on the frontlines, he said, are unlikely to accept any deal that hands over Donbas, and Ukraine’s democratic leaders answer to their citizens—not “unelected outsiders.” After broken promises ranging from NATO assurances in 2008 to the failed Minsk agreements, Ukrainians, he said, “know they can only count on themselves.”
A ceasefire might only be palatable, Landsbergis added, if Western troops were prepared to fight alongside Ukrainian forces—something no European state has offered. Forcing a deal now, he warned, risks repeating the 1938 Munich precedent: “Nobody can explain how Donbas is any different.”
As Europe confronts what he called Ukraine’s “darkest hour,” Landsbergis said leaders face a historic choice: defend the European order or watch it erode.
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