LOS ANGELES.–Fox News 81-year-old pundit Brit Hume says he doesn’t know that Trump’s talking about when says the Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodomyr Zelensky is the major stumbling block to peace. “I’m not exactly sure what the president’s talking about,” Hume said on Fox News with Brett Baier. Hume knows exactly what Trump is talking about, only pretending he’s incredulous. Trump wants Zelensky to cede Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhihia, Donetsk and Luhansk to Putin to get was ceasefire and peace talks. Trump wants to get Zelensky open to up to his peace talks where he agrees to a settlement now and reserves the right to negotiate a return of sovereign territory. “I think we have to deal with Russia,” Trump said. “We have to get a deal with Zelensky. So far it’s been harder,” Trump said. Brit knows that Zelensky has run around Trump to the EU to delay Trump’s peace talks.
When Zelensky runs to the EU claiming Trump is no longer concerned about European security, wants to give Ukraine the short end of the stick. Zelensky thinks he can play the EU card, pitting the EU against the White House, telling its members that Putin is the aggressor and must make the biggest compromises to end the war. Zelensky and some EU members want Putin to pull all his troops out of Ukraine, something unrealistic, especially with current peace talks. “He keeps pounding Zelensky and saying it’s harder to deal with him than it is with Putin,” Hume said. “Putin, so far as I can tell, hasn’t agreed to much of anything except, yes, he’d love to annex Crimea, which is part of the proposal that’s before him now. That’s no concession. All That is, is taking a gain,” Hume said. Hume has no answer for what Trump should do to get Putin to stop the war and return Ukraine’s sovereign land.
Hume criticizes Trump’s for taking a biased views of Ukraine when it comes to peacemaking in Ukraine. Hume knows that Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014 after a CIA-backed, pro-Western coup toppled the duly elected, Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yankovych. So, when it comes to the Feb. 22, 2014 Maiden Revolution that toppled the Kremlin-backed government. Hume acts like he doesn’t know the history of why Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Crimean naval and air bases. What was Putin supposed to do after the Feb. 22, 2014 coup, turn his Black Sea fleet over the Kiev? Kiev made it impossible for Putin to do anything other than takeover Crimea. Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko could have offered Putin a 99-year lease on his naval and air bases if Ukraine wanted to keep Crimea. But he didn’t do it.
If Putin structures a ceasefire and peace deal with the expectation that he will consider negotiating in the future the return of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, then the deal would be more palatable to Ukraine. Zelensky worries that if the Ukrainan people sees him as losing the war, he’ll be blamed for all the destruction and loss of sovereign territory. “Zelensky resists that because Crimea, up until the Russians invaded it 10 years or so ago, was part of Ukraine,” Hume said. Whatever Ukraine had in the past, it’s up to Zelensky to get a peace deal that allows him to satisfy Putin’s demands with a future expectation that returning sovereign Ukrainian land remains possible in the future. Brit Hume acts clueless questioning Trump for saying Zelensky has been a tough customer. Zelensky wants what he wants regardless of whether or not it’s unrealistic and counterproductive.
Trump has done everything possible to work out a favorable peace deal with Putin, again sending 68-year-old special envoy Steve Witkoff back to St. Petersburg to meet with Putin. Brit Hume knows that circumstances March 1, 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea. What was he supposed to do after watching a CIA-backed coup topple the Kremlin backed Kiev government? “So, I’m not exactly sure what the president’s talking about when he says that Zelensky has been more difficult to deal with than Putin,” Hume said, answering his own question. Zelensky has resisted any attempt to settle the Ukraine War by trading land-for-peace, including putting Crimea on the table. Zelensky only went after Crimea once Biden gave him a blank check to fund war with the Kremlin. Zelensky has consistently thrown up roadblocks to Trump peace proposals.
Hume and other Trump critics want Putin to make the compromises not Zelensky because he didn’t start the war. Trump deals in reality, that’s why Hume remains an elderly pundit with Fox News, having no clout in the Ukraine War. Everyone knows Putin started the the conflict but Trump now figures out how to end it now, not as Hume suggests, to keep Biden’s proxy war strategy in tact. Hume says nothing about the death, destruction and loss of sovereign land to Ukraine in three years of war. Hume knows that Trump wants to restore normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin, no longer participating in Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin. Brit keeps talking about Putin making all the concessions to end the war. But when the victor meets the vanquished, it’s usually the vanquished the must make the compromises. That leaves Zelensky sucking it up.
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.
