Ukrainians Fight on as Trump Sympathizes with Russia
As the world awaits the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States with his anti-Ukrainian views and bizarre foreign policy views in a few days, Ukraine’s position on the global stage is sadly trapped between active Russian aggression and bombings and an incoming Washington Administration that favors Ukraine’s age-old deadly enemy.
The international community has had to contend with Trump’s friendly tolerance of Russia’s Putin and cynical distaste for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine for months but now he has stunned and even offended nations around the world with his calls for seizing Greenland, taking over the Panama Canal Zone, turning Canada into the 51st state, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. These suggestions are enough to make even his supporters bristle with anxiety.
Fortunately, as the United States undergoes an almost Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde transformation, the Biden Administration, regardless of how exceptionally critical the New York Post’s Martin Gurri was of the 46th President a few days ago, the incumbent Administration has frequently stood up and gave Ukraine all of the arms and funds that it needs not only to defend itself from Russia’s invasion but hopefully to defeat or smother it in the words of Russian patriarch Kirill. Some may say that this policy angered Putin but in reality, it demonstrated to the world that the United States, true to its historical convictions, continues to unquestionably support Ukraine and the other former captive nations against ongoing Russian threats and aggression.
The U.S. announced this week that it is set to provide Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles as the Biden Administration works to get Kyiv in a stronger position before Trump takes office, US officials said.
The announcement is expected during Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s final trip to meet with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations that Austin brought together months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to coordinate weapons support.
The meeting on Thursday was the 25th and potentially last gathering of the US-led group, as the participating countries wait to see whether it will be continued under Trump.
“Our focus will be on maintaining momentum, delivering results, and sending a clear message: The international community stands resolute in its support for Ukraine,” Austin told reporters traveling with him.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from US stockpiles. A senior defense official who briefed reporters traveling with Austin said the goal was to get those munitions into Ukraine before the end of the January.
To date the US has provided Ukraine about $66.5 billion in weapons assistance since Russia invaded nearly three years ago.
There is now a little less than $4 billion remaining in congressionally authorized funding for Ukraine and much of that is expected to roll over to the Trump administration to determine whether to continue the weapons support.
As Russia cynically adjusted its bombing routine from nighttime to daytime, killing at least 13 people and wounding 32 in southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, Donald Trump shocked Ukrainians and other law-abiding people by revealing that he tends to sympathize with the Russians rather than the Ukrainians – the proverbial raper rather than his victims.
Trump said earlier this month he sympathized with the Russian position that Ukraine should not be part of NATO, and he lamented that he will not meet Putin before his inauguration.
Speaking at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Trump also blamed outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden for allegedly changing the US position on NATO membership for Ukraine.
“A big part of the problem is, Russia – for many, many years, long before Putin - said, ‘You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine.’ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone,” Trump said. “And somewhere along the line Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”
The new US commander in chief has again demonstrated his ignorance of Russia’s imperialistic posture vis-à-vis Ukraine that has existed for a millennia. Trump again showed that he is not aware or doesn’t care that without Ukraine’s accession to NATO Russia will forever threaten to incorporate it into its prison of nations and annihilate the nation.
The so-called Russian orthodox patriarch, Kirill, standing next to his boss Putin, recently criticized the West for not accepting its so-called alternative path to civilized development.
Kirill, an enthusiastic backer of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supporter of killing as many Ukrainians as possible, said Russia presents a challenge to powerful countries not because of its nuclear capabilities or strength, Kirill said.
“They hate us because we are offering a different, alternative path of civilized development,’ he said. The West was in moral collapse, he said, but Russia showed the world how to blend science, culture, education and faith.
“Physically, they cannot really smother us, though they try through different types of slander and the creation of blocs of some sort intended to weaken Russia,” he said. “Nothing will work because God is with us.”
Well, at least the smothering part is correct.
Margus Tsahkna, minister of foreign affairs of Estonia, a staunch support of Ukraine, cautioned that Putin will aggressively pursue capturing all countries between Russia and the Atlantic Ocean if he isn’t stopped.
“We have witnessed from the past what happens if Putin has an opportunity to continue, and he will continue anyway.
“I really hope that we don't need the years 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 to finally understand that we could have a different situation. That's why I'm bringing this parallel with the Munich meeting in 1938.
“But I'm actually more positive that we can support Ukraine based on the understanding that Ukrainians are not fighting only for themselves and for us, but instead of us. I can say it as a former defense minister, because we saw in 2016-17, on the other side of our borders, 120,000 (Russian) troops ready to go within 48 hours. These troops do not exist anymore. They were sent to Ukraine. They are dead.
“So that's why I’m saying that you are fighting instead of us, and this knowledge is finally pretty widespread.”
As I was finishing this post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some 38,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia's western Kursk region since August, with Kyiv now launching a fresh offensive in the border region.
“We continue to maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential there,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted Monday to the presidency’s website.
Monday marked five months since Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Kursk in a surprise summer 2024 offensive. This past Sunday, Ukrainian and Russian officials confirmed that Kyiv had launched a fresh offensive in Kursk, with fierce fighting reported in several villages.
All told, Russia has lost 803,100 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Jan. 9.
This number includes 1,430 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 9,731 tanks, 20,221 armored fighting vehicles, 33,387 vehicles and fuel tanks, 21,765 artillery systems, 1,260 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,038 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 331 helicopters, 21,813 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
The human fatalities clearly indicate that Putin doesn’t care about Russian or Ukrainian lives so long as his demonic mission of subjugating Ukraine is fulfilled.
