Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zeloensky told the Wall Street Journal that he “did not understand” 76-year-old President Donald Trump saying that if he were president the Ukraine War would end in 24 hours. Zelensky said the outcome of the 2024 presidential election would have no bearing on the war with Russia. How Zelensky can’t see that a president has a lot of discretion what to do with foreign wars is anyone’s guess. Zelensky pretends that U.S. policy would not change under a Trump administration. Zelensky could not be more wrong when he says there would be no change to the Ukraine War if Trump’s elected. If Trump’s elected, he would immediately on Day One pull the plug on the billions in Ukraine funding. President Joe Biden, 80, has duped the American public into thinking the Pentagon is defending European democracy in Ukraine.
Zelensky acts disingenuous when he says he doesn’t know what would happen to Ukraine if Biden loses the 2024 election. “Of course, I want the war to end as soon as possible,” Zelensky said, not admitting he’s laid down impossible conditions for the Russian Federation. Zelensky asked for Putin to be tried as a war criminal and for the Kremlin to pay Ukraine reparations. What kind of peace conditions are those? “It has nothing to do with whether the administration will remain the same or will change,” Zelensky said, knowing that Trump said he would end the war in 24 hours. Zelensky knows he’s had a blank check with Biden, deeply buried in the war, giving Ukraine over $200 billions to pay for the bankrupt Ukraine government and fund the proxy war against the Russian Federation. Changing presidents would dramatically change the Ukraine War, pulling Zelensky’s U.S. funding.
No other country in Europe, certainly not the Brussels-based European Union [EU] would pay Kiev for the loss of U.S. funding. Zelensky would be forced to end the war and compromise on his sovereignty with the Russian Federation. Even 100-year-old former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the only way out of the war is to compromise with the Russian Federation. Zelensky calls anyone making any suggestion of compromise or negotiation a Russian puppet. Under current arrangement, Zelensky has no incentive to ever end the Ukraine War. He would spend his lifetime trying to reclaim lost territory to the Kremlin, costing the U.S. trillions of dollars. Trump would nip Biden’s proxy war in the bud, reestablishing ties to the Kremlin, as every president since WW II has done. Only Biden decides to end decades of diplomatic relations and détente with the Kremlin.
Zelensky thinks that the 2024 presidential election would have no bearing on his war with the Russian Federation. “President Biden is the president during the full-scale war, and he has been more helpful to us than President Trump. But at the same time, we must remember that there was no full-scale war at that time, and I am not sure how Trump would have acted,” Zelensky said. Trump has stated emphatically the war would have never started were he president. Biden wrecked all hope of diplomatic relations with 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden called Putin a “soulless killer,” March 18, 2021, ending for practical purposes U.S.-Russian relations. Zelensky kids himself thinking that things would be the same with Trump. Trump would immediately end the Ukraine War by cutting off Zelensky’s funding. Zelensky talks tough because he has no money of his own.
Zelensky still has trouble understanding Trump’s views on the Ukraine War. “I didn’t understand when Donald Trump said that in 24 hours, I would bring Putin and Zelensky to the table and end the war.” Zelensky can’t be honest about the U.S.-funded Ukraine War because it pays his salary and everyone else’s in his government. “He could have done it. But that didn’t happen. Yes, the question was probably not as pressing at the time—because there was no full-scale invasion. But our territories were occupied,” Zelensky said. Zelensky admits that Ukraine’s territories were occupied at the time of the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion. Yet instead of getting back to the status quo before the war, Zelensky, with U.S. cash-an-arms, wants to take the war further, now seeking to boot Russia out of the Crimean Peninsula. Zelensky didn’t talk of ousting Russia from Crimea before the 2022 invasion.
Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal that he would start the counteroffensive soon but worried about losing more Ukrainian troops. Kiev doesn’t divulge its own casualties, only talks bout Russian losses of troops-and-equipment. Reports from multiple sources say Ukraine has already started its spring offensive in fits-and-stops, despite denying that it’s officially started. Zelensky worries that if the counteroffensive doesn’t change much on the battlefield, U.S. and NATO would grow more impatient with Kiev’s progress, forcing the conflict into peace talks. Zelensky wants no part of peace talks because he doesn’t want to give up the billions in U.S. aid, paying for his bankrupt government. Without U.S. government largess, Zelensky could not pay his own salary or that of Kiev government. Zelensky better know that if Trump wins the 2024 things would change quickly.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
