The U.S. government, supposedly an ally of democratic Ukraine fighting off an Russian invasion, has its leaders acting much more like lawyers for the Kremlin in peace negotiations, adopting the straight Moscow line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has enough of an enemy in Vladimir Putin, he doesn’t need more from the White House.
Always a fanboy of Putin, President Trump complained yesterday that Zelenskyy is prolonging the war by not accepting the surrender that Trump is pushing in the peace talks. And Vice President JD Vance is lining up 100% with the wanna-be czar.
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a Ukraine war meeting of European allies in London yesterday, showing once again Washington is siding up with Moscow instead of our British, French and German friends. At least they are all still with Ukraine.
As Vance said yesterday: “We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process.” The proposal is so slanted towards Moscow, achieving all their war aims that they’ve unable to win on the battlefield, that Kyiv will fare better if the U.S. drops the plan.
Vance added: “The only way to really stop the killing is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine. We’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today.”
A freeze is a win for Putin, the aggressor, whose troops, along with North Koreans mercenaries, are holding onto Ukrainian territory seized since the start of Putin’s “special military operation,” as the ex-KGB lieutenant colonel named his unprovoked assault, the largest war in Europe since the guns of WWII fell silent.
Vance explained: “The current lines, or somewhere close to them, is where you’re ultimately, I think, going to draw the new lines in the conflict. Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”
A true peace would be the status quo ante bellum, the lines as they were before Feb. 24, 2022. Yes, going back to that date there was a low-grade war in the Donbas, in Ukraine’s east and Russia would still hold Crimea, which it grabbed in 2014. But the invasion would be reserved, not ratified, as Trump and Vance and Putin are seeking.
There was always a question about how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev “gave” Crimea, with its large Russian population, to Ukraine from Russia in 1954. That was just symbolism when both were part of the Soviet Union, but since the USSR dissolved into actual independent (and hostile) countries in 1991, it has mattered a great deal.
But for all of Russia’s claims to Crimea, the higher principle is that territorial disputes can’t be settled by force. Recognizing Russian de facto sovereignty in Crimea is a non-starter for the Ukrainians, as is forbidding Ukraine from joining NATO, another one of Putin’s goals that Trump is backing.
While the Ukrainians rightly object to all this, a Kremlin mouthpiece is all praise: “The United States is continuing its mediation efforts, and we certainly welcome those efforts.” Sadly, how true.
