LOS ANGELES.–Asking to join the NATO summit in Brussels Dec. 3, Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky throws gasoline on an already volatile situation in Ukraine, claiming he has “victory plan” to end the war. Zelensky knows that NATO membership is a non-starters for 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin who has said emphatically that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO to begin the process of ending the reckless, destructive and costly Ukraine War. Zelensky wants the U.S. and NATO to fund perpetual war with the Kremlin, something 78-year-old President Donald Trump is determined to change. Trump said repeatedly that he will seek a political settlement as soon as he takes office, working with both warring factions. Trump knows that Zelensky wants to join NATO to serve notice on Putin that he can never again threaten to seize more Ukrainian land.
Zelensky fears that Trump will force him to take unacceptable terms to ceding Ukraine’s sovereign territory to the Russian Federation in exchange for a peace deal. Insisting that there can be no peace without NATO involvement, Zelensky has gotten the wrong message from NATO. NATO has said that Ukraine could potentially become a NATO member if and when it meets all the criteria for membership, including no war, fiscal solvency, democracy and elimination of government corruption not currently in place to satisfy NATO membership. Zelensky wants NATO membership to have Article 5 which requires NATO to defend Ukraine from outside attack. If Zelensky had NATO membership today, the 32 member states would be required to defend Ukraine. “Without NATO, it’s not a real independence because he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] will come back,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky hasn’t gotten to the place that he must get along with his Russian neighbor by fashioning a security agreement that works for both countries. Since Ukraine became independent of Russia in 1991, the country got along with the Kremlin without incident until a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the duly elected Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin hosted the Sochi Winter Olympics during the coup. But once the coup was over, Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula to protect his Sevastopol, Crimea Black Sea naval base. What did Ukraine think would happen when it toppled the Kremlin-backed government? Now Zelensky wants Putin to accept that it’s a NATO country when Ukraine was a Soviet satellite until 1991, then a friendly partner until 2014, now a hostile power controlled by the U.S. and NATO. Trump’s job seeks to end the war.
Zelensky’s pressure to join the NATO summit in Brussels shows that he only wants to provoke and antagonize the Kremlin with his constant demands for NATO membership. Zelensky actually wants to propose that if he freezes the war along current battle lines, he wants NATO to guarantee Ukraine’s security with partial NATO membership over Ukraine’s remaining territory. Putin would never stand for NATO involvement in Ukraine, something Zelensky knows but continues to provoke the Kremlin. Zelensky thinks he’s making concessions because his original 10-point peace plan required all Russian soldiers removed from Ukraine, including Crimea. Zelensky knows that everything changes when Trump takes office Jan. 20, 2025, where he fears he won’t have the blank check given to him by 82-year-old President Joe Biden.
Zelensky has difficulty recognizing the rules of war, where he opted for war with the Kremlin and has lost 20-25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory in less than three years. Zelensky can’t have it both ways, fighting war with the Kremlin, then saying he wants all his lost territory back after the war ends. Zelensky gambled with Ukraine’s sovereign territory when he could have negotiated a deal with Putin in March 2020 when Putin offered to settle the conflict. Putin offered Zelensky Russia sovereignty over Crimean and independence of Donetsk and Luhansky. Zelensky rejected Putin’s offer and opted for war. Zelensky must now pay the price to settle the conflict of losing Russia’s spoils of a long, bloody war, requiring great sacrifices on the part of Russia and Ukraine. But Zelensky hasn’t accepted that the war cannot go on indefinitely under Trump’s administration.
Trump wants to restore normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin, something all but destroyed under the Biden White House. Biden was the first post-WW II president that went to war with the Kremlin over a territorial dispute in Ukraine. Biden made the dispute about Putin destroying Ukraine’s fledgling democracy, when, in fact, Ukraine has never been a democracy. Biden’s war rhetoric went so far to say that the Ukraine War prevented Putin from taking over more European countries. Putin has never said he wants to do any such thing. He’s told Biden for nearly three years he wants a new security arrangement over Ukraine. Biden refused talks with Putin and he invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022 in what he called a “special military operation.” NATO should have nothing to do with Ukraine while Trump figures out how to end the reckless, bloody and costly conflict.
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.
