LOS ANGELES.–President-elect Donald Trump, 78, was recently congratulated by 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Trump was a brave man winning the 2024 presidential election after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt July 13 in Butler, Pa. Putin said the least thing he could do is listen to Trump’s ideas about ending the nearly three-year-old Ukraine War that has destabilized peace on the European Continent and raised the prospects of WW III and nuclear war. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a registered Democrat, warned voters before the Nov. 5 election that war-and-peace was on the ballot, saying the prospects of WW III and nuclear war have never been higher. How much that figured into Trump’s landslide victory over 60-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris is anyone’s guess. What known for sure is that Trump promised he would settle the Ukraine war as the first order of business.
Trump spoke with 46-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently with billionaire entrepreneur Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on the call. Trump wants to let Zelensky know that the emphasis now must be on settling the conflict at the peace table, not on winning the war. Zelensky met with EU officials in Budapest, hosted by 62-year-old Hugarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Zelensky tried to present his “Victory Plan” that asked his European partners to contribute more cash-and-arms to the Kiev government. Zelensky knows that Orban 100% backs Trump’s efforts to end the conflict through negotiation and compromise, something Zelensky wasn’t pushed to do by 81-year-old President Joe Biden. Since Biden is out of the picture, Zelensky knows he’s out on a limb asking EU partners to continue supporting the war with Trump pushing for peace.
Zelensky rejected Putin’s peace offer in March 2022, only weeks after the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion, to settle the conflict asking for two simple things, (1) accepting Russian sovereignty over Crimea and (2) recognizing the independence to Russia speaking provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas region. Zelensky opted for war with the Kremlin, destroying Ukraine’s infrastructure, killing thousands of civilians and soldiers, driving millions into exile and bankrupting the Kiev government. In less than three years of war, Zelensky has lost 20-25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, promising, but not delivering, on a failed counteroffensive to reclaim lost Ukrainian territory. Trump now asks Zelensky and the EU to consider realistic peace talks where Ukraine settles the conflict by ceding certain territory to Russia, something Russia already had before the war started.
GOP political consultant and Trump adviser Bryan Lanza said that Zelensky must get realistic about what’s in store for him to settle the conflict. “When Mr. Zelensky says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace once Crimea is returned, we’ve got news for President Zelensky. Crimea is gone,” Lanza told BBC World Service Weekend program. Zelensky has said before that peace can only come if Putin withdraws all Russian soldiers from Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. Zelensky has not been informed that his 10-point peace plan is dead on arrival and he must get realistic about how to end the conflict. EU leaders supported the Ukraine war at the request of Biden. With Biden no longer in charge, the EU will follow Trump’s lead of moving the conflict to the peace table, with Zelensky pressured to accept a settlement involving Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky’s has rejected every peace proposal offered by every country looking to move the conflict to the peace table. Insisting that Putin be prosecuted for war crimes at The Hague, Zelensky wants Russia to pay reparations to Kiev for the cost of the war. With conditions like that, Zelensky rejects all peace plans, unless Russian agrees to pull out of every inch of Ukrainian territory. Zelensky knows that Russia occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk before the war started but after the Feb. 22, 2014 Maiden Revolution, where a CIA-aided coup toppled the duly elected Kremlin0-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevastopol Black Sea naval base, now under threat because of Kiev’s pro-Western government. Zelensky made a major miscalculation going to war with the Kremlin when he could have negotiated a workable peace deal.
EU and NATO are only now considering the changes that have already happened with Trump winning the Nov. 5 election. American voters gave Trump a mandate to end the Ukraine War by whatever means he sees fit. Zelensky can no longer gaslight the White House and Congress about all the security Kiev supplies the EU and NATO. Zelensky has been telling the EU and NATO that Ukraine defends European security, pure poppycock when you know that’s the job of NATO. Putin said recently that any peace plan with Ukraine must have a firm commitment that Kiev remain neutral, not join NATO now or in the future. Trump has no problem accepting that Ukraine will not be part of NATO, nor will it oust all Russian soldiers from Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Zelensky hasn’t caught up to the reality that things have changed with Trump in charge.
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
