LOS ANGELES.–Working overtime behind the scenes, 78-year-old President Donald Trump is busy paving the way with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine War, with 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky going kicking-and-screaming. Zelensky thought Feb. 24, 2022 that he could go to war with the Kremlin and, with U.S. cash-and-arms, drive Russian from Ukraine. Zelensky promised the Ukrainian people he would defeat the Russian Federation and oust every Russian soldier from Ukraine. Three years later, his country is all but destroyed, losing some 25% of Ukraine most priceless sovereign land on the Black Sea coast. Zelensky and 82-year-old President Joe Biden actually believed with enough arms they could degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. That is exactly what Biden and his former Defense Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin told the world.
U.S. fake news is consumed with the drama of Trump’s Cabinet picks, but, more importantly, waging the same political campaign against Trump’s two-week old presidency, no different than the arguments made during the 2024 campaign. When it comes tariffs or ending Diversity Equity and Inclusion [DEI] language in federal agencies, the press acts like Vice President Kamala Harris is still campaigning. All the same arguments about civil rights, gender rights and women’s reproductive rights are now made by the angry U.S. press, thoroughly humiliated in the 2024 election. Voters sent a loud message to Democrats and the U.S. press but it appears no one is listening. Meanwhile, Trump works night-and-day on fulfilling campaign promises, none bigger than ending the war in Ukraine. Biden’s warmongering is soon for the dustbin of history.
Hinting that a deal is in the works with Putin, Trump said that he and Putin could take “significant” action on ending the three-year-old conflict. “We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that will be significant,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. “We want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president,” Trump said, signaling to Congressional war hawks that the days of Biden’s warmongering is over. Biden was the first-and-only U.S. post-WW II president to go to war with the Kremlin. Biden ended decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control, but, more importantly, a cooperative global partnership that helped the U.S. deal with hot spots around the globe. Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin in Ukraine ended cooperative relations, turning the U.S. and Russia into mortal enemies. Congress seemed to go along with Biden’s abysmal judgment.
Behind the scenes, Trump officials are talking to Russia about the contours of a peace deal that would freeze the current battle lines, ending active combat, returning Russian land currently occupied by Ukraine and offering the U.S. to assure Ukraine’s security from any future Russian attacks. Zelensky asked at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland the European Union contribute 200,000 European troops to serve as peacekeepers inside the Ukrainian border. Zelensky knows that would be a non-starter to Putin, would be rejected out of hand. Trump understands that whatever peace deal is worked out, it must be between he and Putin. Zelensky has already thrown so many obstacles into the peace process the war would rage on for the indefinite future. Trump knows that the deal must be with worked out with Putin to stop the fighting.
Trump has said Zelensky made a big mistake opting for war over a peace deal in Feb. 2022. Putin offered to have Zelensky recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. Zelensky said no to Putin and opted for war. Zelensky knows the rules of war that to the victor goes the vanquished, meaning whatever he’s lost in territory is now Russia’s in any kind of peace settlement. Zelensky wants his sovereign territory back but that’s all water under the bridge now. Biden and Harris were willing to fund Zelensky’s war with the Kremlin at a cost of billions to the U.S. Treasury for the foreseeable future. No military analyst sees Ukraine, with all its U.S. and NATO support, winning the war. So, when it comes to Trump’s peace overture to Putin, it’s all that Zelensky has. Trump said recently that Zelensky made a big mistake.
Putin said recently he was glad Trump was back in office and agreed that if Trump were in power the invasion would have never occurred. Trump said Zelensky was “talking so brave,” taking on Russia but badly miscalculated the consequences of Ukraine. “We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president,” Putin said, showing his willingness to work with Trump. When Trump was in office in his first term Democrats and the press accused him of conspiring with the Kremlin. What’s the fake news going to say with Trump making a peace deal with Putin to end the Ukraine War? “I couldn’t disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn’t stolen victory in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided,” Putin said, bound to provoke the U.S. press and war hawks in Congress.
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.