LOS AGNELES.–Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, 46, met with 78-year-old former President Donald Trump today at Trump Tower in New York City, careful not to ignite any controversy over the Ukraine War. Trump has said that he would end t he Ukraine War in 24 hours on winning the Nov. 5 presidential election, saying he has a plan to settle the conflict with the warring parties. Zelensky expressed skepticism after meeting yesterday in Washington with 81-year-old President Joe Biden and 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden and Harris both told Zelensky they were committed for the long haul of the U.S. supporting Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin as long as it takes to oust Russian forces from Ukraine. No one, including Zelensky, knows how long that would take. Zelensky was told by Harris she would not cede any Ukraine territory to Putin.
Meeting with Zelensky yesterday in press event in Washington, Harris said she would not tolerate, like other unnamed people referring to Trump and Vance, ceding any Ukrainian territory to Putin. If that’s Kamala’s policy, she’s embarking on an unending war, continuing the Biden policy of seeking to vanquish the Russian military. How’s Kamala supposed to restore normal U.S.-Russian diplomacy when she promises unending war? Zelensky has rejected all peace proposals from various countries over the last three years, saying the plans are not in Ukraine’s best interests. Meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Brazilian Foreign adviser Celso Amorim said they have a viable plan to bring peace to Ukraine. Zelensky continues to reject all plans that don’t rubber stamp his 10-point peace plan.
Zelensky’s plan calls on Putin to remove all Russian forces from Ukraine, including Crimea and the Donbas region, prosecuting Putin for war crimes and forcing Russia to pay untold billions in reparations to the bankrupt Kiev government. Zelensky’s plan is a non-starter, something that would never fly with Putin. Meeting with Trump today, Zelensky could barely contain himself when Trump said his rapport with Putin would allow him to get a good deal for Ukraine, of course not saying what it would involve. But Zelensky has been very clear that he’s not willing to cede any territory to Moscow. All peace proposals call on both sides to compromise, no doubt involving negotiation and compromise. Zelensky thinks with Biden and Kamala’s support he can keep the war going indefinitely. Risks to the European Continent have grown more dire in recent weeks with Putin talking of nuclear war.
Zelensky told the U.N. General Assembly that Putin has subjected Ukraine and the West to nuclear blackmail, threatening to hit Ukraine’s nuclear power plants or start a nuclear war. Zelensky has provoked Putin since before the Feb. 24, 2022 war started, asking for fast-track NATO membership, something that never happened. Zelensky was told by NATO’s 65-year-old Secretary-General that Kiev is nowhere close to meeting the requirements for NATO membership, including not being at war. “Russia and Ukraine are neighbors that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option,” said Wang Yi, adding that he supports the upcoming Lucerne, Switzerland peace summit involving both Russia and China to find a resolution to the war. Putin said recently Russia would not attend until Ukraine pulls its troops from Russia’s Kursk border region.
Zelensky decided to put more pressure on Putin by invading Aug. 6 the Kursk border region, moving in at least 10,000 troops. Zelensky shows no signs of withdrawing his forces, hoping Putin agrees to withdraw all his troops from Ukraine. Putin had troops in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk before the war, and will do doubt have them there after the war. Trump wants Ukraine and Russia to come together with a compromise plan. Since Putin offered in March 2022 to end the conflict if Zelensky recognized independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian sovereignty over Crimea, he’s hoping to get Putin to end his occupation of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Mycolayiv to strike a deal to save face and end the war. Russia has fought a grinding war in Ukraine to capture some 20-25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, all would end in any peace deal.
Besides China and Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and others signed a communiqué that Amorim says builds on former peace plans, all rejected by Zelensky. Amorim said he would convene on the sidelines of the U.N. the “friends of peace,” to bring all parties to the peace table. Zelensky questioned why China and Brazil would propose their own peace plan without using his plan. “Alternatives, half-hearted settlement plan, so-called sets of priniciples,” only give Moscow more room to continue the war. Wang and Amorim see it differently, trying to find common ground to start a dialogue, not continue the current plan that has Zelensky getting more cash-and-weapons to continue to fight the Kremlin indefinitely. Only Kamala, Joe and Zelensky think it’s a good idea to continue the war with all its risks of spreading the conflict to the European Continent and beyond.
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.
