LOS ANGELES.–When 78-year-old President Donald Trump said the 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had low approval ratings, the fake news responded with Kiev International Institute of Sociology confirming a recent poll showing Zelensky with 57%. Trump responded to Zelensky saying that Trump lived in a Russian “disinformation space,” the same message giving to voters by Hillary in 2016 when she said Trump was a “Putin puppet.” But that’s actually what Zelensky said to the Munich Security Conference, saying Trump could no longer be trusted to defend European security. Zelensky wants only sympathy from the U.S. and EU over his three-year-war that has decimated Ukraine, losing some 25% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory. Yet every night Zelensky speaks to the nation over that last three years telling Ukrainian citizens that he’s winning the war with the Kremlin.
Three years into the war, Zelensky was never winning the war with the Kremlin, once promising in 2023 that he would drive Russia from Ukraine’s borders with a vaunted counteroffensive with new U.S. and NATO weapons. When that didn’t happen, just like doomsday cults still waiting for the Apocalypse, Zelensky had more excuses, saying he just needed more cash-and-weapons from the U.S. Trump figured out long ago, unlike 82-year-old former President Joe Biden, that Ukraine could not defeat the Russian Federation. Zelensky once told Biden that Putin suffered from a terminal illness and the Russia military was near collapse, what happened to all of that? Well like everything with the three-year-old Ukraine War, Zelensky’s forecasts proved false because he lost the war from the beginning because of Russia’s superior army and resources.
Zelesnky’s disparaging remarks toward Trump at Munich and elsewhere prompted Trump to call Zelensky a dictator because he suspended elections due to martial law because of the Ukraine War. Whatever sympathy Ukrainians show to Zelensky, how will opinion polls change once the public knows that he lost the war with the Kremlin? Ukrainians still believe, like Palestinians in the Mideast, that they’re going to prevail over Israel. Trump figured out long ago that Zelensky lost the war, was not going to make any progress defending his territory against the Kremlin. So, what’s the purpose of an unending war that destroys Ukraine and drains the U.S. Treasury, shelling out billions to fund the bankrupt Kiev government and war? Trump figured out to save Ukraine and the U.S. economy that war had to end, shifting his position to reset normal U.S.-Russian relations.
Biden was the first and only U.S. president to end decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with Russia, but, more importantly, cooperative partners on matters of joint global interest. Once Biden and Zelensky turned the U.S. into a mortal enemy of the Kremlin, all global cooperation was gone, leaving decades of U.S. foreign policy and national security in doubt. Zelensky wanted all Russian soldiers out of Ukraine but that wasn’t going to happen. Russia had troops in Ukraine before the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion and will have them in key areas of Ukraine for the foreseeable future. Zelensky could have returned in March 2022 to the status quo but decided, with U.S. cash-and-weapon, to take on the Kremlin. Trump said that was a terrible decision by Zelensky who could have struck a deal with Putin to end the invasion before deteriorating into a WW I trench warfare grind.
Ukrainian citizens don’t have a clue what’s going on with the war other than what Zelensky tells them on a nightly basis. So when the fake news likes to cite a recent 57% approval rating, it doesn’t take into account the truth about losing the Ukraine War. Zelensky refuses to admit defeat because he doesn’t want to admit the war with the Kremlin failed. Ukrainian citizens would get a rude wake-up call to know they’re not getting their sovereign land back anytime soon. They’ve believed Zelensky’s false narrative given nightly that Ukraine is winning the war with the Kremlin. “We may have different opinions about Zelensky, but only Ukrainian citizen have the right to judge his support, said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, with the opposition Holos Party. Does Zhelezniak feel the same way when Zelensky says Trump lives in a Russian “disinformation space?”
Trying to counter Trump’s comments about Zelensky’s real approval ratings diverts attention away from the fact that no Ukrainian citizen has heard the truth about the war with the Kremlin. Any peace deal with the Kremlin would highlight Ukrainian losses, eventually blaming Zelensky for misleading the public. Trump sees the only way out is for Zelensky to cut his losses, no matter how objectionable. What other choice does Zelensky have at this point? No one at the EU can rescue him from any deal Trump would make. When Zelensky cries foul not including him in any peace talks, he’s misleading the public. Zelensky and his EU allies have been fully informed about what’s happening. Trump would do everything possible to get Zelensky the best possible deal. Any deal done by himself or the EU would end in disaster. Only Trump can get the best deal for Ukraine.
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.
