LOS ANGELES.–Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 45, said that “millions will be killed” if the U.S. doesn’t pony up $60 billion to pay for his bankrupt Kiev government and war with the Kremlin. Zelensky has rejected all peace proposals by several reputable countries including China, Brazil and South Africa, to end the deadly conflict with Russia. Zelensky claims that Ukraine has lost 31,000 soldiers since the war started Feb. 24, 2022, electing to wage war against the Kremlin rather take up 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to end the conflict if Zelensky recognizes the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Zelensky rejected Putin’s March 2022 offer, instead has lost over 20% of his sovereign territory to the Kremlin in the two-year-old war. No one forced Zelensky to go to war over negotiating a peace deal with Putin, someone Zelensky calls a war criminal.
Zelensky gets surly every time any U.S. lawmakers oppose spending money on what they see as a wasted war. Zelensky thinks he’s entitled to U.S. taxpayer money, largely because 81-year-old President Joe Biden decided to fund his war with the Kremlin. Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Feb. 25, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) sees no change in the outcome of the war if Zelensky gets his $60 billion. Zelensky said he wasn’t sure if Vance “understands what is going on here,” implying Vance lacks briefing. “To understand it is to come to the front line to see what’s going on, to speak with the people, then to go to civilians to understand . . .what will happen to them without this support. And he will understand that millions . . . will be killed It’s a fact,” Zelensky said. How does that square with Zelensky’s claim that 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in two years? Where are the millions of deaths figure that Zelensky is talking about?
Over the last two years, Zelensky says whatever he thinks will gaslight U.S. and EU officials about the nature of the conflict. No one has forced Zelensky to wage war against the Kremlin, knowing that many countries have already submitted peace proposals. Zelensky rejects all peace plans that call for negotiation with the Russian Federation. Where does Zelensky now say that millions will die unless he gets his $60 million? Last year, Zelensky begged for more lethal weapons, advanced tanks and missiles from the U.S., U.K. and Germany, to help battle the Russians. Whatever the lethal weapons, Zelensky promised his 2023 counteroffensive would drive Russia out of Ukraine by year’s end. When that didn’t happen, Zelensky offered more excuses. Zelensky and Biden told Congress and the EU that without the Ukraine War, Putin would advance to take over more EU countries, threatening Poland the Baltic States.
If Zelensly gives accurate figures about Ukrainian casualties, how he supposed to lose millions if he doesn’t get U.S. funding, when he lost 31,000 in two years of fighting? Zelensky’s millions figure clearly hypes the actual risks, including deciding at some point to let U.N. peacemakers work on ceasefire and peace talks. Zelensky calls Russian estimates of 150,000 to 300,000 Ukraine casualties “deceitful.” “Thirty-one thousand Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000 or 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of those losses is a great sacrifice for us,” Zelensky said, not admitting that he’s at liberty to let neutral U.N. peacemakers end the conflict with all its carnage and destruction. Zelensky can’t have it both ways, exaggerating future Ukrainian casualties to press his case for another $60 billion in U.S. aid and ignoring peace plans. Zelensky never talks about Kiev spends U.S. cash.
J.D. Vance wants the public to know that Zelensky has choices, including whether or not continue his war with the Kremlin, causing so many Ukrainian casualties. Zelensky knows that Russia occupied Donetsk and Luhansk before the Feb. 24 conflict and will no doubt remain in Ukraine after the conflict. No American citizen has an obligation to fund the bankrupt Kiev government. Zelensky doesn’t like to admit that U.S. taxpayers cash goes to pay salaries and pensions of Kiev’s civil servants, not to mention his own salary and those of his cronies. Zelensky spends too much time gaslighting U.S. and EU politicians, insisting that if Ukraine doesn’t win the war, the U.S. and EU will be fighting WW III on the European Continent. Ukraine doesn’t defend European democracy, it defends its own territory, of which over 20% is now occupied by Russia. Without U.S. funding, Zelensky would not battle the Kremlin to return Crimea to his Kiev government.
Zelensky’s decision to fight the Kremlin is entirely his choice, causing untold carnage, infrastructure damage and harm to the Ukrainian economy. Acting like he has no choice but war is what irks conservative U.S. lawmakers that don’t buy Zelensky’s argument that he defends European democracy. Biden has played right along with Zelensky’s fake narrative that Russia will kill “millions” of Ukrainians without the U.S. giving him another $60 billion. Biden has nothing new to tell Congress other than to acquiesce to his demands for more cash to fund a failed war. Only Biden and Zelensky believe that war and sanctions will defeat the Russian Federation. In a few weeks Trump will lock up the GOP nomination and with that the opposition to Ukraine War funding. Trump doesn’t believe Biden and Zelensky can defeat the Kremlin. Trump sees it as a “fool’s errand,” only depleting the Treasury and accomplishing nothing.
About the Author
John M. Curtis wrties 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.
