The six words from Trump that had Zelensky – and the world – wincing |
New York: It was the moment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nearly broke his studied composure.
“Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Donald Trump said.
“It sounds a little strange. But I was explaining to [Zelensky]: President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy – electricity and other things – at very low prices.”
It’s difficult to know where to start with Trump’s assertion that Vladimir Putin has Ukraine’s interests at heart as his full-scale invasion approaches its fifth year.
On one hand, it was quintessentially Trumpian to portray it as a great outcome that Putin, having invaded and turned half of Ukraine into some kind of vassal state, would turn around and offer Kyiv discounted electricity.
It shows, of course, that Trump was not listening or understanding when Putin embarked on a long and by all accounts painfully detailed history of why Ukraine is really part of Russia when the two men met in August in Alaska.
But we knew that already. The question is whether this Trumpian blind spot for Putin’s intent – this apparent willingness to take the Russian leader at face value – will ultimately doom the peace process by railroading Ukraine into accepting terms its people or its parliament cannot abide.
That was one of the items left undetermined as Zelensky left Mar-a-Lago, but he wants any credible peace plan to be put to a referendum in Ukraine, following a 60-day ceasefire. Putin opposes a ceasefire and has seemingly cajoled Trump into seeing it as a waste of time.
As Trump told the cameras that Russia wanted Ukraine to succeed, Zelensky cocked his head – a bit like the woman whose head-tilting facial expression while tasting kombucha........