Stabbed in the Back by Putin’s Fixers in Washington

It is Wednesday evening at 9:44 p.m. in Kyiv. Sirens are once again sounding, warning us of another expected attack by the Russians with missiles and drones.

This is happening while US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is in this capital city to convince the Ukrainian leadership to play along with his boss’ wholesale appeasement of the war criminal Putin and his despotic, predatory regime. 

Clearly the Kremlin has no respect for the US president’s envoy and the peace mission he is supposed to represent.

Shamefully, the US head of state and his sycophantic aides have also shown that they have no respect for embattled Ukraine and its formidable President Volodymyr Zelensky; that they see Ukraine as an expendable pawn, or worse, a potential US colony that can be economically exploited in its fragile state.

After the virtual capitulation of Trump’s dilettante team in Saudi Arabia a day earlier to Putin’s seasoned “diplomats” – with their implicit offer to “let’s be friends again despite everything, albeit at the expense of Ukraine and Europe, as long as it’s good for both of us” – it’s clear that Moscow believes it can continue to get away with murder, literally.

Also, that in return for the normalization of bilateral relations, Russia believes it can brazenly demand what would have been considered completely unacceptable under the circumstances just a few weeks ago: i.e., the lifting of sanctions, the holding on to large parts of Ukrainian territory, the weakening and subordination of its neighbor by deposing its current leadership, the demilitarization of the country, and the blocking of its accession to NATO with what amounts to veto power, making the Alliance effectively obsolete.

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Not surprisingly in Ukraine, and much of Europe, there is shock and disgust with the way Trump and his representatives are behaving and rejecting the traditional role and responsibility of the United States as “leader of the free world.”

Even if Trump and his electorate are fed up and want to rid themselves of this “burden,” there is a minimum level of diplomacy and decency with which such serious U-turns and ruptures should be carried out – especially in a community of longstanding partners.

Instead, we have just witnessed Trump’s rupture with America’s allies and friends and his unilateral and demeaning attempt to appease a Russia that is an undisguised enemy of the democratic world and intent on destroying Ukraine.

Europe is bluntly told that it no longer counts for much in Washington and that its internal “shortcomings” outweigh the external threats from Russia and its allies. Already there are signs that it will not accept this misdirected arrogance, nor will it be meekly sidelined.

And, incredibly, Zelensky is now being denounced as a dictator by America’s new rulers, as the instigator of the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine. In the language of the Kremlin, he is being ridiculed as an incompetent but annoying clown.

How wretched and disgusting!

After three years of Ukraine’s valiant struggle against Russia, preceded by eight years of less intense conflict resulting from Russia’s seizure of Crimea and the eastern part of the country in the Donbas region, Kyiv has now been given an ultimatum by Trump and his team.

What it boils down to is clear. You should do what we tell you to do if you want us to remain your “friend”: give up the territory occupied by the Russians, forget about NATO membership, hold elections despite the war because the Kremlin insists on it, and get rid of the recalcitrant Zelensky.

But also, in the language of Al Capone and other Mafia bosses: Kick up the lion’s share of your natural wealth for any further assistance the US might give you. Putin will get his cut, too.

This smacks of a protection racket. Not Lend Lease. And certainly not the Marshall Plan. 

What a bleak situation. On the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s barbaric onslaught on Feb. 24, Ukraine now faces a Trump administration that has become the antithesis of everything America stands for. A US administration that has stabbed Ukraine and Europe in the back at this critical moment, just to curry favor with Putin’s criminal regime and look macho at home and on the international stage.

Let’s be frank. This is not only reminiscent of the infamous cave-in to Hitler in 1938, which led to the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. It also recalls the secret Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, which resulted in their partition of Eastern Europe, and the Yalta Agreement of 1945, in which Stalin was permitted to impose Soviet rule over half of Europe.

History will record that instead of Making America Great Again, Trump and his uncouth and short-sighted Vances, Hegseths and Musks have seriously diminished the reputation of the US in the eyes of the world, caused distrust and consternation, and increased security threats.

But that is not the end of the story. It may well prove to be a temporary, if very costly and dangerous, detour in America’s path. There are many Americans who want to set things right and get back on course.

Ukraine, with Zelensky at the helm, and its supporters in Europe and the rest of the democratic world, however dismayed they may be, will not buckle. After recovering from this blow and regrouping, they will continue to defend European – not Trumpian – values, with or without the support of Putin’s fixers in the White House.