It looked like things couldnt get any darker for Ukraine. Then
President Donald Trump spoke up.
After cutting President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the first US talks
with Russia on ending the war, Trump on Tuesday falsely accused
Ukraine of starting a conflict that has ravaged its land and killed
thousands of its people.
And in his most hostile comments toward the Ukrainian leader yet,
Trump voiced yet another of President Vladimir Putins talking points
that it was time for an election in Ukraine in an apparent bid to
begin the process of pushing Zelensky aside.
The US presidents comments will fuel fresh fears in Europe, which was
also excluded from the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, that Trump
will try to impose a peace deal in Ukraine that favors his friend in
the Kremlin.
His remarks also appeared to directly contradict assurances by his own Secretary of State Marco Rubio after meeting the Russian delegation
that any eventual peace agreement would be fair to all parties.
And Trumps attack on Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the United
States for resisting Russias Blitzkrieg on Kyiv early in the war, was
a graphic sign of how the new American administration has reversed Washingtons stance of supporting the victim of the invasion and is
now rewarding the aggressor.
Planet of the apes <enough.of.the@apes.usa> wrote in >news:vp44qc$mok$4@news.tambov.ru:
It looked like things couldnt get any darker for Ukraine. Then
President Donald Trump spoke up.
After cutting President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the first US talks
with Russia on ending the war, Trump on Tuesday falsely accused
Ukraine of starting a conflict that has ravaged its land and killed
thousands of its people.
And in his most hostile comments toward the Ukrainian leader yet,
Trump voiced yet another of President Vladimir Putins talking points
that it was time for an election in Ukraine in an apparent bid to
begin the process of pushing Zelensky aside.
The US presidents comments will fuel fresh fears in Europe, which was
also excluded from the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, that Trump
will try to impose a peace deal in Ukraine that favors his friend in
the Kremlin.
His remarks also appeared to directly contradict assurances by his own
Secretary of State Marco Rubio after meeting the Russian delegation
that any eventual peace agreement would be fair to all parties.
And Trumps attack on Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the United
States for resisting Russias Blitzkrieg on Kyiv early in the war, was
a graphic sign of how the new American administration has reversed
Washingtons stance of supporting the victim of the invasion and is
now rewarding the aggressor.
Can you imagine if a foriegn
power tried to negotiate a peace
deal in a war America was fighting?
We would be rightfully outraged,
"we will fight this war on our own
terms, butt out"
Can you imagine if a foriegn
power tried to negotiate a peace
deal in a war America was fighting?
We would be rightfully outraged,
"we will fight this war on our own
terms, butt out"
As I remember Britain and France
both wanted to intervene in the
Civil War
On 2/19/2025 12:26 AM, Planet of the apes wrote:
It looked like things couldn’t get any darker for Ukraine. Then
President Donald Trump spoke up.
After cutting President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the first US talks
with Russia on ending the war, Trump on Tuesday falsely accused
Ukraine of starting a conflict that has ravaged its land and killed
thousands of its people.
And in his most hostile comments toward the Ukrainian leader yet,
Trump voiced yet another of President Vladimir Putin’s talking
points — that it was time for an election in Ukraine — in an
apparent bid to begin the process of pushing Zelensky aside.
The US president’s comments will fuel fresh fears in Europe, which
was also excluded from the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, that
Trump will try to impose a peace deal in Ukraine that favors his
friend in the Kremlin.
His remarks also appeared to directly contradict assurances by his
own Secretary of State Marco Rubio after meeting the Russian
delegation that any eventual peace agreement would be fair to all
parties.
And Trump’s attack on Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the
United States for resisting Russia’s Blitzkrieg on Kyiv early in
the war, was a graphic sign of how the new American administration
has reversed Washington’s stance of supporting the victim of the
invasion and is now rewarding the aggressor.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine,
where we have martial law,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago
resort. Trump also claimed that Zelensky’s approval rating was
“at 4%” and “we have a country that has been blown to
smithereens.”
Reliable polling has been difficult in the middle of a war zone that
has seen thousands of Ukrainians become internally displaced or flee
the country. While recent surveys have shown Zelensky’s popularity
dropping significantly from the almost universal approval he enjoyed
at the start of the war, it’s nowhere near the depths cited by
Trump.
The president also warned that for Ukraine’s views on its fate to
be considered, it should have an election, saying: “You know, they
want a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to
have a say, like it’s been a lot of times since we’ve had an
election?”
Apparently sensitive to criticism that he parrots Russian propaganda
in his statements on the war, Trump insisted, “That’s not a
Russia thing; that’s something that’s coming from me.”
Ukraine’s last election was due to have taken place last April, but
Zelensky said it wasn’t possible for voters to go to the polls in
wartime — a position that is backed up by the country’s
Constitution. Trump’s insistence on voters having their say in a
democracy is ironic given his own refusal to listen to the verdict of
Americans in the 2020 presidential election that he lost. And it’s
even more brazen since Putin has stayed in power for over two decades
by holding sham elections and imposing severe domestic repression.
Trump tries to fog the cause of Ukraine war
Trump’s latest attempt to curate American sentiment around Ukraine
is similar to many of his previous efforts to fog the truth in an
effort to create room for his political aspirations. The most
prominent example of him doing was the 2020 election.
At Mar-a-Lago, he also tried to reinvent the facts around Russia’s
invasion three years ago, when Putin’s forces rolled across the
border of an independent, sovereign democracy and redrew the map of
Europe.
“Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited,’” the
president said, referring to Ukraine’s complaints that it’s not
been allowed to take part in the nascent peace process. “Well, you
been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three
years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a
deal,” he said.
In essence, the president seems to be suggesting that the Ukrainians
should have made an agreement with Russia to avoid the invasion —
which, in practice, would have involved submitting to a puppet
government in Kyiv loyal to Moscow or simply giving up fighting to
hand a win to Putin.
Trump’s response to the Saudi talks, which he said on Tuesday could
be followed by an in-person meeting with Putin by the end of the
month, risked redoubling what was already a victory for the Russian
side. His comments are also likely to further cement opposition to
his long-shot peace plans among Europeans, who his administration
says must be responsible for enforcing any future agreement to stop
the fighting.
Trump seemed vague about what a peace deal in Ukraine would look
like, underscoring impressions that his top goal is a deal of any
kind, which would allow him to claim a personal political victory but
that his critics fear could foster future conflict.
He said Tuesday he’d be open to the possibility of European troops
enforcing any eventual agreement – even though the idea was
rejected by Moscow’s envoys at the Saudi Arabia talks. He didn’t
comment on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s warning that such
a force would only be viable with a US “backstop.” This followed
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning last week that no
American troops would be involved in keeping the peace in Ukraine.
Starmer is due in Washington next week to meet the president and is
presenting himself as a bridge between the US and Europe.
But Trump’s enthusiasm for Putin is not shared by at least two
senior Republican senators.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker said Tuesday that he does
not think the Russian leader can be trusted. The Mississippi senator
told CNN’s Manu Raju that “Putin is a war criminal and should be
in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.”
And Sen. John Kennedy agreed with his colleague’s acidic assessment
of the Russian leader though stopped short of criticizing Trump’s
approach to the peace talks. “Vladimir Putin has a black heart. He
clearly has Stalin’s taste for blood,” the Louisiana senator
said. Underscoring the party’s deference to Trump, however, he also
rejected claims that the president had offered significant
concessions to Russia simply by bringing it in from diplomatic
isolation.
“I haven’t seen us take any steps to take the pressure off
Putin,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/donald-trump-putin-ukraine-
analysis/index.html
Putin wants to end this thing as much as Trump does. It's a
bottomless money hole with no return.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 483 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 159:48:54 |
| Calls: | 9,594 |
| Files: | 13,676 |
| Messages: | 6,149,239 |