LOS ANGELES.–Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to accuse 78-year-old President Donald Trump of weakening Ukraine’s bargaining position in ceasefire and eventual peace talks with the Russian Federation. Zelensky has spent three years receiving unlimited U.S. cash-and-arms under 82-year-old former President Joe Biden’s proxy war strategy with the Kremlin. When Trump took office, he reversed Biden’s failed policy, largely because it was destroying Ukraine, leading to unnecessary death-and-destruction. Trump’s policy is to end the war by negotiating the best possible deal for Ukraine to stop the bloodshed that’s caused unthinkable carnage and destruction to Ukraine. Zelensky wants Trump to continue the Biden policy of unlimited cash-and-arms to give Ukraine as much time as it needs to drive Russia from Ukrainian soil.
European Union officials meeting in Paris today continue Zelensky’s failed strategy of demanding the Russia must remove all its forces from Ukraine to get the EU to remove economic sanctions against the Kremlin. “They are posing conditions on sanctions to the American side. If America stands strong . . .we are standing on our own land and are defending ourselves,” Zelensky said, rejecting Trump’s foreign policy. Zelensky thinks he can demand that Trump return to Biden’s proxy war policy that all but destroyed U.S.-Russian relations. Before the U.S. had any relations at all with Ukraine, it was a global partner with Russia, working on nuclear nonproliferation and a host of other cooperative global projects. Biden ended decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with Russia, all to support Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin, something unrealistic and unfeasible.
Zelensky wants more cash-and-arms from Trump to defend his country, the same way he’s done over the last three years. So, what Zelensky is asking Trump is for a permanent hemorrhage to the U.S. Treasury at a time when the U.S. is dealing with a $2 trillion national debt and $36 trillion national debt. Zelensky could care less about U.S. internal economic problems, only sees the U.S. as a cash-cow to Ukraine. Biden made Ukraine out to be a close ally of the United States, when it’s only recently that the U.S. was involved at all with Ukraine. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and before that part of the Russian Empire. Zelensky’s smoke blowing has Ukraine as an integral part of Europe. Where’s the history to support that? U.S. started to meddle in Ukraine backing a pro-Western coup Feb. 22, 2014 during the Obama administration where Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula.
All the wisdom of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy created today’s war in Ukraine, deciding to topple the duly elected, Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Once Yanukovych was driven from Kiev, the U.S. started arming Ukraine to eventually have the firepower to evict Russia from seizing Crimea March 1, 2014. Fast forward to today, where the three year war in Ukraine has killed untold numbers of Ukrainians and Russians, it was Putin view as a existential war for Russia. Putin views the war as the U.S. and NATO trying to topple his Kremlin-backed government. So, when it comes to Putin having conditions for a long-term peace, he wants assurance that the U.S. and EU will no longer encroach on Russian national security. Zelensky doesn’t want peace in Ukraine unless its favorable to his conditions that includes all Russian troops leaving Ukraine, something that won’t happen anytime soon.
Zelensky continues to push Trump to continue the Biden war policy of supplying Ukraine with unlimited cash-and-weapons. “We have shown our resilience. And now it is very important for our partners to be at least as resilient as we are, though they have more capabilities,” Zelensky said, implying that it’s Trump’s responsibility to foot the bill for his unending war with Russia. Trump assessed the situation in Ukraine as hopeless, meaning that no amount of U.S. cash-and-weapons will change the outcome of the war. Three years of war with the Kremlin has decimated Ukraine’s infrastructure and lost some 25% of Ukraine best sovereign territory on the Black Sea coast. Zelensky expects the U.S. and EU to back his plan to spend untold billions of foreign aid from the U.S. and EU to get his land back and drive Russia from Ukrainian soil.
Zelensky denounced Trump’s Ukraine envoy Steve Witkoff for saying he did not “regard Putin as a bad guy,” infuriating the Ukrainian president. “I don’t think this brings us any closer to peace. Unfortuneately, I believe it only weakens the pressure from the Americans on Russia,” Zelensky, acting like he knows how to bring peace to his country. Zelensky’s answer for peace is to continue receiving enough U.S. cash-and-arms so he can continue fighting the Kremlin. “I have spoken with President Trump many times and we are working at the intelligence level to exchange real, truthful information. Because Witkoff’s statements are a major obstacle for us,” Zelensky said. Does Zelensky think he can dictate Trump’s foreign policy? Witkoff seeks on Trump orders to reestablish normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin. Where does Zelensky set U.S. foreign policy?
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.
