LOS ANGELES.–Demanding the European Union [EU] supply 200,000 peace keeping forces to Ukraine, 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed his irrational side, making unrealistic demands when peace talks haven’t even started. Zelensky has been putting out demands for the three years of war with Kremlin, saying at one time he wanted 72-year-old President Vladimir Putin prosecuted for war crimes at The Hague. Making unrealistic demands started Feb. 24, 2022 when Putin moved 200,000 troops inside the Ukraine border. Putin asked 82-year-old former President Joe Biden to discuss Ukraine security arrangements for months before the invasion. When Putin invaded, he offered Zelensky in March 2022 to resolve the conflict by agreeing not to join NATO, accepting Russian sovereignty over Crimea and independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Zelensky opted for war against the Kremlin receiving U.S. cash-and-arms from Biden with the expressed intent to driving Russian forces out of Ukraine. Zelensky could have taken Putin’s offer but with Biden’s approval went to war against the Kremlin. So, now that Biden is out of office and Trump plans to negotiate a political settlement with Putin, Zelensky starts making demands at the economic summit in Davos, Switzerland. Fearing he would have to admit to the Ukrainian people that he lost the war, Zelensky’s security as president has unraveled. “From the European Union? 200,000, it’s a minimum. It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing ,” Zelensky said, when asked about a EU peacekeeping force. What makes Zelensky think the EU wants to get involved at all?
Going to Davos under completely different circumstances now that Trump has taken office, making demands of the EU or U.S. seems all the more outrageous. What about Zelensky trying to work out a peace deal with Putin, rather than imposing himself on the EU. France has only about 200,000 active duty forces yet Zelensky thinks it’s reasonable to ask France and Germany, the two largest EU countries, to divert 200,000 of their troops and unending resources to protecting Ukraine’s security. Only recently, Zelensky told the EU that Ukraine defends European democracy, claiming his military had the capability of NATO to stave off a Russian invasion. Zelensky has watched Ukraine destroyed over the last three years, losing some 25% of Ukraine’s most prime sovereign territory. So, how is it in Davos, Zelensky asks the EU to contribute 200,000 troops to Ukraine.
Zelensky said Ukraine will not agree to Russia’s demands to cut the size of its military, knowing it will not longer get the cash-or-weapons from the U.S. Begging for NATO membership has only made peace all the more impossible, since Putin said it’s a deal breaker. Zelensky’s goal is different than Trump’s: He wants Trump to continue the Biden policy of giving him a blank check to run his bankrupt Kiev government and fund perpetual war with the Kremlin. Zelensky knows his demands on the EU for 200,000 troops are preposterous, given the EU wants no part of his war with the Kremlin. Zelensky gambled with Ukraine’s sovereignty going to war with the Kremlin Feb. 24, 2022 and has watched his country destroyed, losing its best sovereign territory. No EU country wants war with the Russian Federation, no matter how much they sympathize with Ukraine’s situation. But Zelensky didn’t have to receive so much arms from the U.S. to threaten Russia.
Zelensky had the nerve in Davos to suggest that he agreed with Trump that each EU country much commit more of its GDP to defense, not giving away that capital to defend Ukraine. “Does anyone in the United States worry that Europe might abandon them someday—might stop being their ally? The answer is no,” Zelensky said, proceeding to urge EU foreign minister to increase their defense spending for the purpose of giving it to Ukraine. “If it takes 5% of GDP to cover defense, then so be it. 5% it is. And there is no need to play with people’s emotions that defense should be compensated at the expense of medicines or pensions—that’s not fair,” Zelensky told EU foreign ministers at Davos. How could anyone listen to his madness without sitting him down and giving him a dose of reality? He got Ukraine into the war, he must get them out it without the EU.
Zelensky has gone mad making demands from the EU of 200,000 peacekeeping forces to defend Ukraine in case of a new Russian invasion. Zelensky opted for war with the Kremlin and must now deal with the rules of war: To the victor goes the vanquished. Zelensky’s loss of territory, destruction of infrastructure and death to Ukraine’s troops and civilians was Zelensky’s choice that turned out to be a horrific decision. Zelensky once talked like, and everyone in the EU knows it, that he and the U.S. would vanquish the Russian Federation. Zelensky and Biden were clearly in the Twilight Zone believing that they would defeat the Kremlin. Biden and his former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they would degrade the Russian military so that they could no longer wage war. Well, how did that work out? It’s up to Zelensky to cut his losses and stop making demands.
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.
