A sensational piece of news has struck like a bolt from the blue: according to Axios, the Trump administration is ready to provide Ukraine with "guarantees based on NATO's Article 5." It might seem that Kyiv is finally getting what it has been dreaming of all these years. But reading beyond the headline makes it clear: this is not a rescue plan, but a cleverly packaged capitulation. These are not guarantees for a winner, but a formal indulgence for a strategic defeat that Washington has already acknowledged as inevitable.