LOS ANGELES (OC).–Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to keep retaliating against Russia for today’s strkes on Kiev, decimating more residential buildings, prompting Zelensky to promise retaliation over peace talks. Zelensky has been stuck on keeping the war with Russia going as long as the European Union foots the bill, something Ukraine could not pay on its own. President DonaldTrump stopped the Biden policy of giving Ukraine a blank check, over $300 billionl to battle the Kremlin in the worst military conflict since WW II. Trump has asked both warring sides to come together for a ceasefire rand peace settlement, asking both sides to make compromiaes with Zelensky refusing to trade land-for-peace, a guarantee the the over four year war continues indefinitely as long as the EU pays for it. There’s enough enmity toward Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep it going.
Trump entered off Jan. 20, 2025 vowing to meet a compaign promise and settle the conflict., something he’s fournd elusive. Trump can’t get both sides to agree to a simple settlement because Zelensky does not want to cede any land to the Kremlin. After over four years of war, Zelensky has lost some 30-25% of Ukrines most coveted sovereign territory, something he refuses to admit to the Ukrainian people. If you ask Ukrainians who’s winning the war, they’d tell you Ukraine, of course, because Zelensky never levels with the public. Ukrainian people don’t know Zelensky has lost some 20-25% Ukraine best sovereign land around the Black Sea coast and Sea of Azov. Yet Zelensky thinks that continuing to battle the Kremlin, time is on his side with rumors swirling againt about Putin’s health. Zelensky doesn’t know the next Russian leader would be more hard line.
Trump has sked Zelensky since taking office to cut his losses and accept a peace deal that trades land-for-peace, especially in the Donbas area where Russian speaking enclaves want no jpart of the the Kiev government. Today’s war in Ukraine stems fdrom the Feb. 22, 2014 Maiden Revolution wherer a CIA-backed pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych government March 1, 2014. Since then, the Peoples Reoublics of Donetsk and Luhansk rebelled against the Kiev government, seeking independence from Ukraine. Putin move in 200,000 troops when former President Joe Biden refused for months to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine, instead continuing to arm the Kiev government. Biden and Zelensky determined that war with Russia would eventually topple the Russian Federation.
Trump saw thing differently betfore-and-after taking office, seeking at the earliest possible time to reconcile relations with the Kremlin. Biden all but destroyed U.S.-Russian relations by backing proxy war against the Kremlin in Ukraine. Trump, much to Zelensky’s contempt, vowed to re-establish U.S.-Russian relations for the purpose of returning to normal diplomatic relations, including arms control and cooperation on a host of global problems. Zelensky can’t fathoum that U.S-Russian relations have a decades old history since the end of WW II designed to maintain world peace. Trump told Zelensky that he’s pushing the European Continent into potentially WW III, all because he refuses to settle the conflict with Putin. Putin is willing to give Zelensky back some soverign territory as long as he he cedes eastern Donbas to the Russian Fderation.
Choosing more retataliation against peace talks, Zelensky shows he has no real interst in settling the conflict as long as the EU keeps paying the billis. Trump had enough of Biden’s blank check funding proxy war with the Kremlin. Putin no longer sees the U.S. as its enemy, instead watching his once lucrative trading partner in the EU turn against the Kremlin. Putin once had former German Chancellor Angela Merkel paty $12 billion for the Nord Stream II pipeline that would have brought cheap Russian natural gas to Europe for years. But Zelensky sabotaged the Nord Stream 11 pipeline once the war began Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine’s security service bombed the underwater piplelne, denying even today with overwhelming evidence of their resposiblity. Zelensky has shown a lot of bravado battling the Kremlin but only when the U.S. and EU pays for the war.
Whatever death-and-destruction occurs in Kiev, it’s an altogether redundant theme of Zelensky refusing to end the war, give up on his fantasy of Putin giving up. Trump told Zelensky many times to come to his senses and settle with Putin to end the conflict that continues to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and lose sovereign land. Putn wants Zelensky to cede Donesk and Luhansky, both Russian speaking enclauves in Donbas that want no part of the Kiev government. Zelensky wants wants Putin to leave all Ukrainian lands, including the Crimean Peninsula, something Putin annexed after the Maiden Revolution. The way the war is going now there’s no end in sight with Zelensky losing more civilians, infrastructure and sovereign land. Only by negotiation and compromise can Zelensky end a losing proposition for Ukraine.
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 Charisms.
