Ukraine Deserves Better, not President Trump

President Donald J. Trump is continuing to express his impulsively absurd and offensive observations about Russia’s war against Ukraine that do not bode well for Ukraine’s sovereignty and regional security.

Either because of his ignorance and arrogant belief in his infallibility or subservience or Moscow’s dictator Putin, Trump isn’t presenting himself as a serious global leader who has genuinely assumed leadership of the free world. Furthermore, Trump has demonstrated unequivocally that he isn’t committed to defending Europe and NATO against ongoing Russian aggression. Unity among America’s traditional allies isn’t top of mind for Trump, who sadly shuns America’s historical traditions and policies. This view is causing concern across the Atlantic. Trump’s erratic foreign policy resembles Russia’s point of view and actions as accentuated by Putin, the despot Trump claims to know quite well and consequently even tolerates bar none.

Trump’s latest preposterous remark shocked observers at the Davos forum a couple of weeks ago. The American president called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin “stupid” for failing to reach a peace deal. Speaking at the forum, Trump reiterated his oft stated, erroneous analysis that the “tremendous” and “abnormal hatred” between the Ukrainian president and Russian dictator is the reason for the war and the inability to end it, without acknowledging Russian aggression and imperialism as causes.

Trump has been known to mock Zelenskyy as a poor negotiator and “grossly incompetent,” as tensions continued to rise over the Administration’s direct talks with Russia about ending the war it launched nearly four years ago. Trump has said Kyiv had enough time to end the war, “You should have never been there. You should have never started it. You should have made a deal.”

Again, lack of knowledge and ambivalence about facts. Assigning parity to the aggressor and victim sends the matter into a dead end, from which there is no emergence.

Politico pointed out that Trump’s pro-Putin favoritism has called Zelenskyy is a “dictator” even though he won a fair election in 2019. But the American president doesn’t say the same about Putin, even though his main opponent died in jail a few weeks before Putin won a rigged election last year and the United Nations has designated him a war criminal.

In the recent weeks, Trump and his team have also undermined NATO, backed far-right politicians in Europe and vowed to hit the European Union with a trade war for its “very unfair” treatment of the US No wonder a growing number of European officials and diplomats think the American president is really on Russia’s side.

Ukraine and the other former captive nations of Russian imperialism have come to recognize that Russia can’t be trusted. Russia said it wouldn’t bombard Ukraine during the frigid weather but then it launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine, resuming direct attacks on energy infrastructure despite a request from Trump that Moscow refrain from striking such targets during extreme winter cold. The assault hit eight Ukrainian regions, striking thermal power plants that provide heat to Kyiv and major cities including Kharkiv and Dnipro, according to Ukraine's energy ministry.

“Each such Russian strike confirms that attitudes in Moscow have not changed,” Zelenskyy said, calling for faster delivery of air-defense systems, noting that such an attack “can be intercepted only by Patriot systems.”

Trump, in his pro-Russia point of view, thanked Moscow for fulfilling its promise.

“We asked President Putin if they could stop the shooting for a week,” Trump told reporters at an event in the Oval office. “They're being hit with, proportionately, the kind of cold that we're being hit. It’s much colder in Ukraine to start off with, but it’s really cold. He agreed to do that. We appreciated that very much.”

Trump’s claim that his Russian comrade “kept his word” by not launching mass missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week has been met with perplexity and dismay in Kyiv. Trump might have missed the news that Russian continued bombing Ukraine.

“I believe this is either a mockery of our misfortune, a lack of understanding of the situation, or wishful thinking,” Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker from the opposition European Solidarity party, told the Kyiv Independent.

“(The pause) was for Sunday to Sunday,” Trump said the same day. “It opened up and (Putin) hit them hard... He kept his word on that. One week is a lot — we will take anything.”

“This is clearly a victory for Putin,” Inna Sovsun, lawmaker from the Holos party, told the Kyiv Independent. “He can claim that Russia has shown ‘goodwill’ while continuing to drag out the negotiation process."

Russia has significantly upped the frequency of mass attacks in recent weeks with some happening less than a week apart. But the slightly longer pause between strikes on January 24 and February 3 was reflected in the size of the attack which was the largest of the winter so far. Russia launched 71 missiles, compared to only 4 on January 18, 27 on January 20, and 21 on January 24.

Adding to the anger in Ukraine is the seeming lack of recognition from the US that Russia conducted several deadly strikes on Ukraine during the period in question, including a drone attack on a bus that killed 12 miners in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on February 1. Several days earlier, Russian cutthroats twice hit passenger trains resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.

“Putin only needed time to reload the missiles, refuel the planes, and lift them into the air,” Ruslan Horbenko, a lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People party, told the Kyiv Independent. “Such fake statements from both sides, from the Russians and from the United States, only weaken the trust of both Ukraine and European partners.”

No condemnations have been forthcoming from the White House.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, an ardent support of Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv during the attack and said Russia was attempting to cripple the country’s energy system, urging allies to provide more air-defense interceptors.

“It is important that the NATO Secretary General is with us in Ukraine at such a brutal moment of this war, when the Russians have once again disregarded the efforts of the American side,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

“Ukraine needs much more,” Rutte said. “And we are urgently working to ensure that more is delivered as quickly as possible. I continue to work with allies, urging them to dig deep in their stockpiles, knowing how pressing is the need.”

Meanwhile, the US is aiming to get a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia by March despite a lack of progress on territorial concessions, according to reports. Don’t count on it.

Trump and his team are without a doubt unprepared and incapable of bringing peace to Ukraine. They lack the intellectual and philosophical skills to stand firmly in Ukraine’s corner, forthrightly defending its sovereignty while opposing bravely Moscow’s aggression.

Trump must abandon his dangerous anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia policies. The world, NATO, Ukraine and Ukrainian American voters deserve and expect no more.