Trump’s pre-meeting talks with Putin undermined Zelenskyy’s agenda, leaving Ukraine without Tomahawks or immediate sanctions, exposing flaws in U.S. diplomacy and slowing urgent defense actions.
I am sure that Zelenskyy was played “in the dark” by Trump and Putin. Knowing that Zelenskyy was flying to meet him—well, I’m convinced that Trump summoned Zelenskyy rather than invited him—Trump was holding talks with Putin just hours before the meeting with Zelenskyy. After the talks with Putin, Trump comes out with talking points saying we already have too few Tomahawks, that it’s too early to impose sanctions, and so on. In other words, Trump basically nullifies all the points Zelenskyy was supposed to discuss with him. It was reported by Sergiy Pogrebetskyy.
The fact that Zelenskyy, along with Yermak, met with one of the arms manufacturers is good, but without the Senate’s and Trump’s approval, no ammunition will leave U.S. territory. From the U.S., what we need are Tomahawks (there’s little hope for the Flamingo), sanctions are a good thing, but that’s a long-term game—over a year or more. Right now, we need to destroy drone production, powder plants, chemical factories in Russia, and other defense enterprises.
Zelenskyy was shown up, and along with him, so were we. Sanctions take effect a year or two or three after being imposed, but Putin knows how to bypass them. As they say, nothing personal, just business—that’s how European and Chinese businesses think, and so on. Tomahawks, though, would have been immediate, today, right now. One can confidently equate Trump’s promises to impose “hellish” sanctions with his promises to provide Tomahawks—it’s all empty air. Putin has a golden key to Trump’s heart: money.
The only thing that might make Zelenskyy interesting to Trump—and along with Zelenskyy, all of Ukraine—is the Nobel Prize and the decision to annul the 2019 impeachment related to the Ukraine issue, when the House of Representatives impeached Trump. Trump demands an investigation and the reversal of the House’s decision. To do this, testimony from top Ukrainian officials is needed, as well as documents from the investigation of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office against Biden’s son. Here, Trump cannot do without Zelenskyy, unless the FBI already has both testimony and documents.
Meanwhile, we are left without sanctions and without Tomahawks. At least Umerov got to visit his family, Yermak took Svyrydenko out, and Zelenskyy will have dinner with Trump. By the way, what Yermak, Svyrydenko, and Umerov were even doing in the U.S. is completely unclear! What our ambassador Stefanishyna is doing in the U.S. is also still unclear.
Something is wrong with our diplomacy, something is definitely wrong!
