LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, signaled to 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin that it was time to get on with ending the Ukraine War before he’s forced to impose more tariffs or sanctions on Russian goods. Trump wants to end the Ukraine War and restore normal diplomatic ties with Russia, including ending the Russian oil embargo, something important to the Russian economy. Putin has skirted many of 82-year-old former President Joe Biden’s harsh economic sanctions by selling more cheap oil to China and India than ever before. But regardless of how he’s managed to elude U.S. and EU sanctions, it’s still taken a toll on the Russian economy. Putin faces a deflated Ruble and more defense spending to keep pace with U.S. and NATO weapons shipments to Ukraine. Ending the war would pay richly for the Russian Federation, changing everything.
Trump wasn’t trying to coerce Putin into a deal, he was trying to talk up the advantages to both sides of ending the bloody, costly conflict. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries,” Trump said, encouraging Putin to meet as soon as possible to resolve the conflict. Trump believes he can make a deal because he’s willing to freeze the war on the current battle lines but has no problem guaranteeing that Ukraine will not join NATO while he’s president. Russia’s deputy U.N. Amb. Dmitry Polyanskiy said Russia is waiting to hear all about Trump’s “deal” to end the conflict. Judging by Trump’s past statements, he’s not interested in placating Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Polyanskyiy wants the discussion to focus on what started the war in the first place, to fix what was wrong with Ukraine’s security arrangements. Putin warned Biden for months that if the U.S. continued to arm Ukraine, he would be forced to take a “special military operation” designed to de-militarize and de-Nazify Ukraine from excessive weapons from the U.S. and NATO. “It’s not merely the question of ending the war,” Polyanskiy told Reuters. “It’s first and foremost the question of addressing the root causes of the Ukraine crisis,” a good starting point for coming up with a solution that works. Zelensky asked the EU in Davos, Switzerland today for 200,000 EU troops, something that would violate every principle since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Putin would never accept EU troops on Ukrainian soil, nor would he ever accept Ukraine joining NATO.
Since the start of the invasion, Zelensky has provoked the Kremlin asking to be fast-tracked for NATO membership. No one has promised Zelensky NATO membership, something prohibited because of his conflict with Russia. Zelensky knows that it’s a deal breaker for NATO to offer Ukraine membership but that doesn’t stop Zelensky for asking. Zelensky knows with Trump in power he would never be accepted for NATO membership and must give up the idea to seek peace with Moscow. Zelensky opted for war Feb. 24, 2022, thinking he could defeat the Russian military with the right kind of U.S. and NATO weapons. While Ukraine has fought hard sustaining heavy casualties, he keeps the fight going thinking he can get back his lost sovereign territory. But every day that the war goes on Zelensky loses destroys more Ukraine infrastructure and loses more sovereign territory.
Zelensky knows that the war started Feb. 22, 2014 when a pro-Western, CIA-backed coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Black Sea naval base, starting an active war in Donetsk and Luhansk that has caused over 14,000 casualties. Zelensky inherited the conflict when he took office May 20, 2019. But instead of resolving outstanding security issues with Moscow, Zelensky went full steam ahead arming Ukraine with U.S. and NATO weapons. When Biden refused to discuss new security arrangements with Ukraine, Putin invaded Feb. 24, 2022. Zelensky then decided with Biden’s backing to go to war with the Kremlin, now lasting nearly three years, losing some 25% of Ukraine’s territory. Trump wants to restore U.S.-Russian relations including oil sales.
When Trump meets with Putin, he’ll offer to resume all oil sales with Moscow, once amounting to $13.5 billion in 2014, the same year as the Maiden Revolution, toppling the Kremlin-backed government. Putin wants security guarantees from the U.S. that Ukraine would cease-and-desist all its military operations, including retreating from the Kursk border region. Zelensky to get peace would have to freeze the conflict at its current battle lines with Russian controlling more sovereign territory in Donbas, Zaporizhzia and Kherson, all territory taken by Russian during the three-year conflict. Zelensky fears any admission of defeat would result in his ouster and Ukrainian president. Ukrainians have only heard Zelensky boasting nightly about all his gains against Russia. Now Zelensky must admit defeat and accept that Ukraine has lost its prime sovereign territory to Russia.
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.
