LOS ANGELES.–Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr is the biggest obstacle to a peace deal to end the Ukraine War, acting like he has the cards to call the shots.  President Donald Trump, 78, offered him the best possible deal for peace ceding Crimea to the Russian Federation in exchange for a lasting peace deal.  Zelensky insists he can’t change the Ukrainian Constitution, something the parliament will have to figure out if it wants peace.  What’s better for Zelensky, continuous war, destruction, carnage and lost sovereign land or settling the conflict with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin?  Since Trump came to office, Zelensky has pitted the European Union against Trump, when, in fact, the EU has no interest in funding proxy war with the Kremlin.  Zelensky thought he could simply demand his sovereign land back from Russia after three years of war.

            Trump  said today that Zelensky’s public comments were “very harmful” to the peace process, insisting the Crimea must stay with Ukraine. Well, Russia occupies and controls Crimea and Zelensky has spent over three years trying to get it back.  “The statement made by Zelensky today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that! We are very close to Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally GET IT DONE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.  Zelensky has sent mixed messages recently that he’s ready for peace but only on his terms.  When Trump says he has “no cards to play” he’s talking about how Russia has won over three years of war.  To continue the war, Zelensky would have to get an ironclad commitment from Brussels that they’re willing to supply the arms-and-cash needed to battle the Kremlin into an indefinite future.

 Trump has let Zelensky know that the U.S. under his leadership will not support proxy war with Russia.  So, Zelensky’s only cards are to convince Brussels and the U.K. to underwrite war with the Kremlin, once former President Joe Biden’s foreign policy.  Trump has Putin to a point where he wants to settle the conflict because the same impetus doesn’t exist any longer for war. Putin once thought his war in Ukraine was against the U.S. and Western Alliance.  Putin knows that Trump wants to restore normal U.S.-Russian relations, returning to the days of global cooperation and partnership.  When Zelensky figured out that Trump seeks normal diplomatic relations with Putin, he went ballistic in the Oval Office Feb. 28, arguing with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance over the war.  Zelensky wants peace on his terms which demands that Russia pull all its troops out of Ukraine.

J.D. Vance signaled that Zelensky and Putin must decide what they want before the U.S. pulls out of peace talks.  “We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from the process,” Vance told reporters on a trip to India.  U.S. officials withdrew Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff from any talks in London this week, needing to hear something concrete from Zelensky before the funeral of Pope Francis April 26 in Rome.  Trump would’ve have met with Zelensky had he agreed to the operative peace formula that Russia remains in control of Crimea.  Zelensky has no way of changing Crimea other than to keep the war going.  Trump sees Zelensky as unrealistically making demands that interfere with any pragmatic formula for peace.

Zelensky hasn’t accepted that for the war to end he’s going to have to meet Putin’s demands of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and Russian control of Kherson, Zaporizhizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, all Russian speaking provinces in the Donbas region.  Russia controls much of the four areas after over three years of war.  Zelensky keeps provoking Putin by insisting he seeks NATO membership in the future, a red line for the Kremlin.  Putin wants no part of NATO encroaching on the Russian Federation, something expressly prohibited after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.  Former Secretary of State James Baker promised Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev that the U.S. and NATO would not encroach on Eastern Europe which includes Ukraine.  Zelensky has been told by NATO that membership is not in the cards now or in the future.

Zelensky has a real peace deal on the table that would end over three years of brutal trench warfare, going nowhere other that destroying more infrastructure and losing more sovereign Ukrainian land.  Since his disastrous Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, Trump knows he cannot trust the Ukrainian leader as a peace partner.  Zelensky wants to keep the war going as long as the EU pays for it, now that Trump has withdrawn U.S. support.  Zelensky should know that he’s pushed things to the breaking point with Trump and has no one in the EU to bail him out.  So, whatever game he’s playing with EU and U.K. backing, it does nothing to win him more concessions with Putin. Trump has negotiated the best deal possible short of going back to war that threatens the European Continent.  No one in the EU wants to takeover Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin.

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.