LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, was abundantly clear that Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky sabotaged peace talks, hiding behind the European Union [EU] and the U.K. to oppose the extensive peace efforts Trump has already engagd with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has been clear since Feb. 24, 2022, the date of the Ukraine invasion, that he would settle the conflict if Zelensky recognized Russian sovereignty over Crimea and independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. Nothing has changed since then, Putin now telling Trump’s 68-year-old special envoy Steve Witkoff last week that the same conditions apply now for peace, other than Zelensky surrendering Kherson and Zaporizhizhia, both territories he annexed during the last three years of war. Zelensky demands that Putin pull all Russian troops from Ukraine.
Zelensky has made his demands for peace clear, defying every peace plan offered by several countries over the last three years to end the war. Zelensky wants Putin prosecuted for war crimes at The Hague’s International Criminal Court and for Russia to pay Ukraine war reparations. Putin, of course, rejects all of Zelensky’s conditions for peace, because he has no way to enforce them. “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea . . . There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution,” Zelensky said, trashing all the hard negotiations Trump and his team have worked on to end the conflict. Trump blames Zelensky for going to war with the Kremlin, thinking he would eventually prevail. Three years of war has destroyed the Ukrainian infrastructure, killed thousands, exiled millions and lost Ukraine’s best sovereign territory to Russia.
Trump approach with Putin is one of ending the conflict to stop, as he calls, it “the killing field,” leaving untold numbers of Ukrainians and Russian maimed and killed over the last three years. Trump said the Ukrainian military with all its U.S. and NATO arms failed to mount an effective defense against the Russian army. Trump blamed former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden for abandoning Ukraine in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2014, only hours after he ended hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics. CIA backed pro-Western forces toppled the duly elected, Kremlin backed government of Viktor Yanukovych Feb. 22, 2014, causing the current war. Putin annexed Crimea to protect his Sevastopol naval base and air base after the so-called Maiden Revolution. Kiev’s new leaders knew there would be consequences from the Kremlin.
U.S. officials never recognized the CIA-backed coup that ousted Yanukovych and put pro-Western Petro Poroshenko in power. Trump said it’s not necessary for Zelensky to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea but it’s necessary to end the bloody conflict with the Kremlin in control of the territory. “Nobody is asking Zelensky to recognize Crime as Russian territory,” but said Zelensky’s inflammatory statements . . . makes it so difficult to settle this war,” Trump said. Trump knows that Zelensky no longer considers the U.S. Ukraine’s ally, now looks for cash-and-arms from the EU. Trump is the only one pushing for peace in Ukraine, with the EU coddling Zelensky by telling him they back his right to sovereign territory. Yet the EU also resists the idea of taking over funding for the proxy war, letting Zelensky continue to battle with the Kremlin for the indefinite future. Zelensky and the EU have no plan to recapture lost Ukrainian territory other than to keep fighting.
Zelensky’s recent statement about not accepting Russian sovereignty over Crimea has thrown peace talks into chaos. Putin is not going to pander to Zelensky or the EU’s demands that Russia forces leave Ukraine. After three years of war, Putin looks entitled to the spoils of war, including holding on to Kherson, Zaporizhizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Zelensky can demand he wants Russia to turn over Crimea but three years of war haven’t made it happen. Trump can’t control what happened after over three years of war with the Kremlin. Zelensky knows how much sovereign territory he’s lost in the last three years. He also knows that Putin isn’t about to acquiesce to his demands to get out of Ukraine. If Zelensky has any intent of making peace, he’d better accept the deal Trump has negotiated designed, about all else, to end the bloody conflict.
Trump can’t continue to fund Zelensky’s war with the Kremlin while he tries to restore normal diplomatic relations. Trump’s peace overtures to Putin have made the Ukraine war obsolete, since it’s no longer a war between the Kremlin and the Western Alliance. Biden opted in 2022 for war with the Kremlin, something Trump has refused to do. Biden and his former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in 2022 that the aim of the Ukraine War was to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s not a declaration of war with Russia, then what is? Biden trashed decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control all to back Zelensky’s war with the Kremlin. Generations of U.S. presidents worked on developing pragmatic, cooperative relations with the Kremlin. Bide turned a U.S. global partner into a mortal enemy overnight.
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.
