LOS ANGELES.–Listening to 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ramble like a madman about getting nukes for Ukrainian security, it shows how close he is from losing power. No one listening to Zelensky can take him seriously after he asked the European Union at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 20-24 for 200,000 peacekeeping troops. Zelensky knows that the Biden gravy train is over with 78-year-old President Donald Trump coming into office. Trump pledged he would end the reckless, destructive and costly Ukraine War at the earliest possible time, currently making arrangements behind the scenes for a summit with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky said after the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, he would never meet with war criminal Putin. Now Zelensky says he would meet with Putin anytime to make peace.
Trump and Putin have no plans for including Zelensky in any ceasefire or peace talks, largely because Ukraine has lost the war. Former President Joe Biden, 82, wanted to keep arming Ukraine to give it a better bargaining position in any peace talks. Biden’s strategy backfired, making Zelensky’s participation in peace talks counterproductive. Zelensky set out his 10-point peace plan, rejecting every other realistic plan put out by several respectable foreign countries including China. Zelensky demanded that Putin remove every Russian soldier from Ukraine, something that won’t happen in any peace settlement. Trump said Zelensky badly miscalculated the effect of going to war with the Kremlin, causing unnecessary death-and-destruction to Ukraine over the last three years. Zelensky has lost some 25% of Ukraine best sovereign territory on the Black Sea coast.
Zelenksy thought he could go to war with the Kremlin without consequences. He wants Russia to leave Ukrainian territory but knows the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson are now Russian territory. “The chance of them getting nuclear weapons back is somewhere between slim and none,” said Lit. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump special envoy to Ukraine. “Let’s be honest about it, we both know that’s not going to happen,” Kellogg said, raining on another farfetched idea by Zelensky. When he asked the EU Jan. 20 to supply 200,000 peace keeping troops to Ukraine, he couldn’t have possibly been serious. Zelensky’s off-the-wall ideas are precisely why he can’t be part of any future ceasefire and peace talks. Zelensky knows that his demands for NATO membership are also not happening because Ukraine doesn’t meet NATO’s membership criteria, certainly not as a democracy.
Putin said recently that Zelensky couldn’t participate in the ceasefire or peace talks because he’s not the lawful leader of Ukraine, postponing democrat elections due to martial law. With Ukrainian waking up about losing the war with Russia, Zelensky certainly wouldn’t be the first choice to lead the country. “Remember, the president said we’re a government of common sense,” Kellogg said. “When somebody says something like that, look at the outcome or the potential. That’s using our common sense,” referring to Zelensky saying he would need security guarantees in any peace deal. Having lost the war, Zelensky is in no place to dictate terms of any settlement, certainly no making any demands for nukes. Zelensky once told the EU he was defending European democracy fighting the Kremlin. Zelensky can’t defend Ukraine, how can he defend European democracy?
Kellogg plans to attend the Munich Security Conference [Feb. 13-16] to discuss with European allies plans to end the Ukraine War. “That’s one of the reasons I’m going next week to Europe, to actually see them face-to-face,” Kellogg said. “I can bring back to the president and say, ‘OK, Mr. President, this is their concern. This is what the issues are.” Kellogg, knowing he must go through the process, even though the final decisions lies with Trump and Putin. NATO’s new Secretary-General Mark Rutte still hasn’t adjusted to the change of leadership in Washington. NATO still operates from the Biden White House pushing war with the Kremlin, ramping up Ukraine with cash-and-weapons to deter Putin. Trump needs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene in bringing NATO allies up to speed on what expected changes with the war come next.
Zelensky shows daily that he’s cracking under the pressure knowing that Trump and Putin will settle the conflict without him. Zelensky lost the war and has little to say now in settling the conflict. NATO allies must come around to what Trump wants because Biden is no longer gaslighting EU allies on the necessity of beating the Russian Federaton. NATO Secretary-General Rutte needs to get up to speed that Russia is not the only problem in Ukraine as it’s been sold to the EU and NATO over the last three years. Biden and Zelensky have sold the EU on the idea if Ukraine loses the war [which they have] it means Putin could decide to invade other EU countries. Biden and Zelensky gaslighted the U.S. Congress, EU and NATO to believe his rubbish about Putin. Now it’s up to Trump to set the EU and NATO straight about what it takes for peace.
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.
