LOS ANGELES (OC).–President Donald Trump expressed disappointment over recent phone call with Putin where he got the impression that he wanted to continue the war. Trump also talked with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who requested more patriot missiles to stop Russia’s aggressive assault on Ukrainian’s airspace. “We spoke about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies,” Zelensky wrote on X regarding his conversation with Trump. Trump has some big choices to make because he’s attempted since taking office to restore normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin. Former President Joe Biden trashed generations of U.S.-Russian relations to fund proxy war against the Kremlin, turning Russia from cooperative global partner into mortal enemy. Now Zelensky asks Trump for more defensive weapons.
Trump must decide what he wants to do to bring about peace in Ukraine. Zelensky stabbed Trump in the back at the Munich Security Conference, telling conference attendees that Trump wasn’t concerned about defending European security. Zelensky reasons that if Trump wants normal diplomatic relations with Putin, he’s no friend of Ukraine. What Zelensky doesn’t get embroiled his war with Russia is that U.S. has bigger foreign policy and national security considerations to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia. Zelensky thinks that if Trump wants normal diplomatic relations, he can’t be a friend of Ukraine. Well, before former President Joe Biden trashed generations of diplomacy, détente, arms control and global cooperation, the U.S. worked hard to cooperate with Russia. Trump, in that tradition, seeks to establish normal relations with Russia.
Trump walks a fine line supplying Ukraine with offensive and defensive weapons and reopening normal diplomatic relations with Putin. Trump needs to give Putin more time to figure out an off-ramp in Ukraine. Zelensky hasn’t been cooperating in the peace process, running to the EU telling them Trump is trying sell Ukraine down the river. No one in the EU can deliver peace to Ukraine, only protract the inevitable of death and destruction. Zelensky still deludes himself into believing he can beat the Russian Federation. Trump has told him he doesn’t have the cards to negotiate a peace settlement on his terms. Zelensky threw a fit in the Oval Office Feb. 28 when Trump contronted him about his resistance to the peace process. Zelensky doesn’t want to admit to Ukraine that he’s lost some 25% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory over three years of war.
Kremlin Spokeman Dmitry Peskov said it was “preferable” to achieve the goals of the invasion through diplomacy but realized that’s not happening with Zelensky. “But as long as that is not possible, we are continuing the special operation,” Peskov said. Trump understands that unless Zelensky is willing to go to the table with some realistic plan for ending the conflict, the war will continue unabated. Putin has been driving home the point to Zelensky that if he wants war, then that’s what he gets. If he wants to negotiate and compromise in good faith, then Russia will meet him halfway. But for Zelensky to think after three years of war, he’s going to get all his sovereign land back is preposterous. Key figures in the EU need to tell Zelensky that he’s going to have to trade land-for-peace. Zelensky has been mislead to think the EU is willing to fund his war with the Kremlin.
Zelensky wants Trump to join the sanctions bandwagon that would all but kill U.S.-Russian relations. Trump must consider what’s more in U.S. foreign policy and national security to have relations with Russia or fund more war in Ukraine. Trump finds himself with pressure from war hawks in Congress, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to continue funding war with Russia. Graham can’t think beyone his old Neocon days running around with the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) who never met a war he didn’t like. Trump promised a quick end to the Ukraine war but ran into stumbling blocks especially with Zelensky who refuses to compromise on Ukraine’s lost sovereign land. So, when it comes to Trump’s disappointment with Putin, his real problems are with Zelensky. What’s Putin supposed to do when Zelensky calls his peace proposal blackmail?
Trump has a real dilemma continuing to supply Ukraine weapons when he’s trying to build trust with Putin for new U.S.-Russian relations. Supplying arms to Ukraine runs counter to any peace talks that requires the U.S. to stop arming Ukraine. Trump hasn’t decided which direction to take, saying he was pausing arms shipments to Ukraine to take inventory of Pentagon stockpiles he claims have rune thin. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU must “step up” its arms shipments to Ukraine with Trump withholding them. Brussels hasn’t decided what to do with Ukraine, not certain it wants to fund proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Biden spent three years arming Ukraine only to watch Zelensky lose more ground to the Kremlin. Trump must decide if he really wants closer ties to Russia. If so, he has to tell Zelensky no.
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.
