LOS ANGELES.–Heading to Brussels on an urgent trip to shore up support for Ukraine after President-elect Donald Trump’s blowout victory Nov. 5, 63-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to drum up support for the failing Ukraine War. Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has taken over $200 billion in U.S. aid and delivered nothing in nearly three years of war. Zelensky has only lost more sovereign territory to the Kremlin, roughly 20-25%, killed thousands of civilians and troops, destroyed Ukraine infrastructure, driven millions into exile and bankrupted his Kiev government. Yet Zelensky still wants more U.S. and NATO cash to continue his battle with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising he will win the war with enough cash-and-weapons. Trump wants the war settled at the peace table, not on the battlefield.
Sending Blinken to Brussels is anther last ditch attempt by the White House to salvage the biggest failure of the Biden administration, the Ukraine proxy war with the Kremlin. President Joe Biden, 81, was the first and only U.S. president to fund proxy war against Russia, ending decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control, a key pillar of every U.S. administration since WW II. Blinken’s Brussel’s trip flies in the face of logic because in two months he’ll no longer be Secretary of State and Biden will be fully retired from public service. Blinken wants to assure that European allies don’t stop supporting Ukraine after Biden leaves office, knowing that Trump will end the conflict through a political settlement. Brussels has been pressured by the Biden White House since the war began Feb. 24, 2022 to join the madness of war with the Kremlin. EU leaders should have called for a political settlement long ago.
Biden and Blinken have gaslighted the EU from the beginning, telling the Brussels-based government that Putin suffered from a terminal illness and the Russian military was near collapse. Biden and his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the EU that the purpose of the U.S. intervention was to break the Russian military. Nothing of the sort took place with Putin looking just fine and the Russian military producing more weapons-and-ammo than ever before. So, when it comes to Blinken asking for more EU support, Brussels should wait to hear from Trump before making more financial and arms commitments to Ukraine. Trump’s incoming Secretary of State Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) said he supports Ukraine’s ambitions but the war is a stalemate with Ukraine unable time to prevent more death and destruction. More cash-and-weapons won’t give Kiev more leverage.
Biden and Zelensky think that funding more proxy war with the Kremlin gives Kiev more leverage in any political settlement. There’s simply no evidence to support that more fighting helps Kiev’s bargaining position. Zelensky must admit he made a colossal blunder going to war with the Kremlin, even with billions in U.S. cash-and-arms. Zelensky has done nothing other than destroy Ukraine infrastructure and economy over the last three years of war. Trump wants to immediately stop the carnage, death and destruction on both sides of the conflict. “Our approach remains the same as it’s been for the last two-and-a-half years, which is to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position of the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Blinken said, repeated the same talking points that have gotten Ukraine only more devastation.
EU and NATO leaders know that the Biden administration is on the way out. Nothing that Blinken says should make any difference in Brussels. You would think that Brussels would be thrilled that Trump wants to end the war at the earliest possible time, rather than spending billions more on a futile military campaign. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed concern about Putin taking advantage now that Trump comes back in office. Baerbock knows that her job is in jeopardy knowing the Chancellor Olaf Scholz may lose his governing coalition. “We don’t have time to wait until spring,” Baerbock said, knowing that she doesn’t have much more time a Foreign Secretary. Brussels will not continue to fund the war if Trump wants it ended at the peace table. EU leaders don’t want to continue funding a war that goes nowhere other than defeat.
Biden and Blinken have had almost three years to get the job done in Ukraine but have failed by grossly underestimated Putin’s resolve. He sees the Ukraine War as one between the Kremlin and the U.S. and NATO, not primarily Ukraine. Putin said he’s open to ending the conflict and would like to talk to Trump about his plans for ending it. “It’s safe to say that whatever approach U.S. leadership takes toward Ukraine, Europe will have step up and we will have take the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense effort and macro financial stability,” said Olena Prokopenko of the German Marshal Fund of the United States. Olena knows that if the U.S. under Trump wants to settle the conflict peacefully, the EU will go along, not proceed on its own. EU officials are just catching up to the fact that things have changed for Ukraine now that Trump gets sworn in Jan. 20, 2025.
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.
