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“President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a ‘dictator’ on Wednesday and warned he had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, deepening a feud between the two leaders… The extraordinary attacks - a day after Trump claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia's 2022 invasion - heightened concerns among U.S. allies in Europe…
“‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,’ Trump wrote on social media… Zelenskiy's five-year term was supposed to end in 2024, but presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022 in response to Russia's invasion…
“The Ukrainian leader said Trump's assertion that his approval rating was just 4% was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail. ‘We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,’ Zelenskiy told Ukrainian TV. The latest poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, from early February, found 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskiy.” Reuters
Here’s our recent coverage of Ukraine. The Flip Side
The left is dismayed that Trump appears to be abandoning Ukraine.
“Trump says of the Ukraine war that Ukraine ‘should have never started it’ — when of course Ukraine didn’t start anything. Trump might as well say that a mugging victim shouldn’t have punched the attacker’s fist with his nose…
“The Trump administration has lately sided with Moscow on one issue after another: Ukraine must cede territory, can’t join NATO and should hold new elections just as Russia insists. (Meanwhile, there’s no call for Russia to hold elections.) Trump even suggested that Russia should be readmitted to the Group of 7.”
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
“At least Neville Chamberlain was deeply troubled over Germany’s territorial ambitions. Chamberlain didn’t have the benefit of, well, a Neville Chamberlain to understand that receiving assurances from a dictator that he didn’t have further territorial ambitions wasn’t worth a thing. But at least Chamberlain sought and received some kind of concession from Hitler after meeting with him, worthless as that promise turned out to be…
“By contrast, Trump and his cabinet went out of their way to ensure Russia would be getting everything it wants from a peace deal even before talks had begun… Moreover, the U.S. is making these concessions, on behalf of a party not even at the table, with absolutely no guarantees that Russia won’t invade again at a later date and seize what it failed to take this time. Without additional security guarantees, the peace deal is only as good as Russia’s word. Which is to say, it is worth nothing at all.”
Jay Kuo, Status Kuo
“The Trump administration’s foreign policy has become crystal clear: Screw the rest of the world, allies and adversaries alike. Who cares if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gets to keep the wide swath of Ukraine’s territory he seized in a brutal, unprovoked invasion… Maybe the United States would be more concerned about Ukraine’s sovereignty if we were given half of the country’s valuable mineral resources. Does that make us sound like mobsters running a protection racket? Well, the world is a tough place…
“Who cares if the newly contemptuous U.S. stance toward the democracies of Europe makes them feel abandoned and vulnerable? Who cares if the leaders of wealthy, technologically advanced nations such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy — effectively demilitarized, beneath the U.S. umbrella, since the apocalypse of World War II — decide they now have no choice but to massively rearm? What if Europe is soon bristling with weapons, and what if Putin sees this buildup as a threat? What could possibly go wrong?”
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
“Ukrainians should be free to decide whether to apply for NATO membership and not be handed over to a Russian sphere of influence. And the United States and Europe should offer no sanctions relief for Russia until Ukraine’s future is secured. Everyone wants to see this debilitating war ended, and Trump is right to pursue a deal. But to sacrifice Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity for the sake of improved ties with the Kremlin is not the way to achieve a just or durable peace.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
The right is divided about Trump’s approach to Ukraine.
The right is divided about Trump’s approach to Ukraine.
“To avoid war, Ukraine wouldn’t simply have had to give up on joining NATO, it would have had to abandon its sovereign foreign policy entirely. That would mean an end to plans for closer economic relations with the European Union and the United States and an end to aspirations for a more democratic and less corrupt government. Ukraine would have had to agree to do Putin’s bidding on whatever malfeasant agenda he held at any one moment. This would have meant that any future Ukrainian government and president served only at Putin’s pleasure…
“Moreover, while Trump may be right in claiming that he could have negotiated a deal that saved most of Ukraine’s territory, he would have only been able to do so by either sanctioning the Russian economy into an oblivion that threatened Putin’s very grip on power or by threatening to defend Ukraine with U.S. military forces. It seems unlikely that Trump would have made these pledges…
“Trump needs to realize that Russia maintains the maximalist ambition of conquering the entirety of Ukraine… Until Trump recognizes this truth and leverages pressure against Putin’s optimism he can succeed, peace will not be possible.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
Others argue, “Any serious person already knows that the war will almost certainly be brought to a close along those lines. Russia will likely keep the land that it took in 2014… and the West will promise to not bring Ukraine into NATO, the factor that probably did the most to motivate Putin’s illegal invasion. Ukraine’s independence will be guaranteed and the West will ensure that Ukraine can defend itself against Russia in the future…
“Establishment Republicans’ claims that Russia’s incompetent army might overrun all of Europe if Ukraine didn’t triumph — as if it were the mighty and numerically superior forces of the Red Army and the Warsaw Pact before the fall of the Berlin Wall — were ludicrous. Nor can anyone on the left or right in America or Europe define what they mean when, like Biden, they demand ‘victory’ for Ukraine. The notion that Kyiv could conquer a nuclear-armed Moscow is a fantasy.”
Jonathan S. Tobin, The Federalist
“Back in 2019, Donald Trump’s presidency — already under siege after a brutal midterm election in the House — was derailed by what he considers to be a spurious impeachment attempt by the Democrats. Trump was arraigned for improperly ‘interfering with the 2020 election’ by pressuring Zelensky to probe the details of Hunter and Joe Biden’s financial entanglements with their government — entanglements we now have every reason to believe were indeed significant and deeply corrupt, certainly on Hunter’s part…
“I think his attitude toward Ukraine accords with his lifelong priors, yes: Trump regards most countries as being essentially parasitic upon the United States, taking advantage of our purported self-inflicted economic ‘weakness’ in the modern era (hence his pronounced contempt for NATO and the EU); he also reflexively disdains ‘weak’ Ukraine vis-a-vis the historically ‘strong’ Russians, who dominated his imagination as a youth. But more importantly, Trump hates Zelensky and Ukraine because they have become a totem for all the forces that tormented Trump for years.”
Jeffrey Blehar, National Review
