White House Dealmaker Doesn’t Care about Ukraine

On the eve of a major European conference, at which Ukraine’s existence will be discussed and perhaps decided, President Trump has lived up to his reputation of a shrewd dealmaker but, sadly, he also revealed that he doesn’t care about Ukraine.

The White House has dispatched a high-level delegation, headed by Gen. Keith Kellogg, its point man on issues pertaining to Ukraine and Russia, and Vice-President J.D. Vance, to the Munich Security Conference that will be held February 14-16 in its namesake German city.

Yesterday, February 10, Trump, who has never clearly stated his support for Ukraine but rather has tended to favor Russia, expressed his lackadaisical opinion about Ukraine’s independence. Nonetheless, regardless of Ukraine’s victory or defeat, he wants compensation for the aid America provided Ukraine to turn back Russian aggression. He’s cashing in on a money-back guarantee.

“They (Ukraine) may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re going to have all this money in (Ukraine) and I say, I want it back," Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier.

Apparently, the American president doesn’t respect America’s partners and allies and the captive nations that it pledged to support in numerous proclamations since the height of the Cold War.

Trump had pledged during the presidential election campaign to broker a swift peace deal to end the Russian war against Ukraine that is nearing its third anniversary, claiming that the conflict would have never happened if he had been in office in 2022. 

Earlier, Trump indicated that he would be interested in ensuring US support for Ukraine in exchange for its rare earth minerals in a $500 billion resource deal. Trump claimed that Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has “essentially agreed” to the deal.

“I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth (minerals), and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” Trump said.

Ukraine has already signaled it is open to developing a partnership in resource extraction with the US and other partners in exchange for security guarantees, but details are lacking.

In the world of high-stakes foreign politics, such haggles aren’t unusual, especially between halfhearted partners. However, in the case of Washington and Kyiv, in the past three decades surely and since the end of World War Two, there has been an explicit and implicit understanding that the United States supports Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty. Since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine three years ago the level of this support has been greatly magnified – except in the dealmaker’s mind. If President Zelenskyy wants to see Ukraine independent and sovereign, he will then have to buy assurances on the open market.

Trump’s flippant comment about Ukraine becoming Russian or not was not lost on the Kremlin leadership. Putin et al picked up on it right away.

Kremlin’s chief public liar Dmitry Peskov said a day later that the situation in Ukraine “largely corresponds to President Trump’s words.”

On Tuesday morning, Peskov said Trump’s remarks indicated the situation on the ground in Ukraine – often referred to by Putin and other Russian officials as the “new territorial realities” of Russian military occupation.

“The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already, is a fact,” he lied in talking to reporters, referring to Moscow’s 2022 illegal occupation of four Ukrainian regions. “Any phenomenon can happen with a 50 percent probability – either yes or no.”

The Russian war against Ukraine is continuing. Its mission is to fulfill President Trump’s ill-fated words about Ukraine becoming Russia. That’s the way it is today and that’s the way it’s been for centuries. Russia wants Ukraine to be included in its prison of nations. As the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, foreign policy and national security adviser to US presidents, observed, “It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”

Trump should also stop whitewashing Putin and Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. In an article in the New York Post after speaking with the Russian fuhrer, Trump said, “He wants to see people stop dying. All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ask the International Criminal Court, ask the parents of murdered Ukrainian children, ask the people about their killed in action sons and daughters. Russians’ rape and killings continue.

On the night of February 11, Russian cutthroats launched 124 drones and up to 18 cruise missiles at Ukraine.