The last week of February ended in a political earthquake that may lead to a rapid transformation of the international world order. The visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the White that House (24.02.), followed by the visit of UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (26.02.) was rounded up at the end of the week (28.02.) by a meeting between President Trump and Zelensky, that after more than 30 calm minutes of communication ended in complete disaster (despite warnings given to Zelensky by some of his advisors as well as by people from Trump’s entourage, not to rush into a meeting in the oval office which in part will be public, according to CNN and others reports e.h.). The trigger for this was when J.D Vance used the Word “diplomacy” and Zelensky freaking out. In front of the cameras and world press, a shouting match developed during the last five minute of the encounter between Zelensky, Trump and his Vice President J.D. Vance that brought the meeting to an abrupt end. Originally a deal on rare earths was supposed to be signed by Zelensky and Trump. It would have been the case , if the whole scene had not escalated in this way in front of the cameras.
Almost predictably the European media and elite were hyping themselves into a complete state of rage against Trump and his team, allegedly for having staged the entire meeting and for having “humiliated” Zelensky. Zelensky then travelled to a EU summit that had been organized by Keir Starmer in London (March 1 and 2nd), the results of which were not very substantial, except the demand by Macron and Starmer to have for one month a ceasefire and then see what diplomatically could be done. This stands in contrast to what President Trump is working on as a “peace plan.” The open defiance by some EU leaders, who still hope to draw the US into their operation on the ground, could mark the end of a functioning transatlantic relationship. And Europe is going to lose at the side of Ukraine by catapulting itself into strategic “irrelevance.”
The open defiance and hostility shown by EU leaders (with the exception of Orban’s Hungary and Fico’s Slovakia e.h.) reveals in reality a strong and principled reaction formation against President Trump’s peace initiative, beginning some weeks ago with a call to President Putin (12.02.), followed by a successful Riyadh summit between the respective foreign ministers of the US and Russia and in turn a third follow up meeting in Istanbul March 2nd between high level diplomats of both sides.
The key issue is “War or Peace”
Leading military experts – among them former NATO military commission Chairman General (ret.) Harald Kujat – expressed concern about what had happened during the meeting at the White House. In an interview, March 1rst, with the Swiss daily “Weltwoche”, Kujat stated, that Zelensky is “not ready to negotiate about peace.”(!) This already had become evident at the Munich MSC in a discussion between him and Vance. The essence of this conflict now carried out in the open is- according to him- that “Trump wants to end the war with “peace”, while Zelensky wants to “continue the war” (!) The war however cannot be won, and this is clear since a long time for experienced military and political observer, according to Kujat. Kujat characterized Zelensky as a “tragic figure” who at the beginning of the war March 2022 had been ready in Istanbul to come to an agreement with Russia, by accepting the following core conditions for Ukraine:
*No NATO membership
*Neutral structure for Ukraine
*No foreign troops on Ukrainian territory;
Russia in return had been ready to withdraw its troops. The West however (specifically the US and UK) had been unwilling to support Zelensky in this endeavor; whereas he at the time expected to get something in return which did not get fulfilled. Kujat compared the European “state of mind” with “August 1914(!)”: “The conflict is not about Zelensky or Trump. The key question is do we chose war or peace?”
In respect to the escalation that took place in the White House in public Kujat stated: “Factually Trump was right. Zelensky is not ready for peace.” He emphasized that Americans ( from the Biden administration) had asked Zelensky to reverse the decree that he signed October 2022, which prohibited any possibility to negotiate with Russia. “I don’t see any sign that he is ready to give up that position”. (…) Furthermore Zelensky is facing a military defeat! This only can be averted by a ceasefire, that will be followed by peace- negotiations.”
Answering the question whether the oval office escalation was “planned” as many media and European politicians claim, Kujat answered that Zelensky had the plan to get wide ranging security guarantees from the US and “involve the Europeans” in the security guarantees. Kujat: “Europeans cannot replace the US to compensate what US has done during the war. If the US stops its support, Europe has nothing to compensate with. And this will only accelerate the decline and will lead to the point where we Europeans will have to take responsibility for the military decline of the Ukraine and for everything which follows after that, militarily, politically and economically, i.e. everything that is important for the future of Ukraine is then in our hands.”
Kujat also underlined that the “US under Trump will follow a policy of disengagement in Europe and NATO, but also against Russia.” He would have said many times that he is ready to give “Russia a ‘Cordon sanitaire’ and is ready for negotiations between Russia and USA and normalize relations as well as in the field of disarmament: Disengagement could contribute to greater stability in Europe! Getting peace for Ukraine is not the aim as such, but the aim is to get stability in Europe.”
Kujat ended by stating that it is highly desirable that we in Europe concerning the “question of peace and war” make the right choice. “The Train of the US goes in the direction of peace; the train of Europe takes the direction of war.” We should try. We must convince the Ukrainian president that we in Europe are not ready to risk war in Europe.”
How it came to the fiasco at the White House
A closer look at the full transcript of the entire (40 minutes) conference, that took place at the Oval Office (February 28) shows that President Volodymyr Zelensky got indeed into a heated “war of words” with US President Donald Trump and his Vice President J.D Vance, during this critical meeting at the White House. Essentially Zelensky clung to his doubts, whether Trump’s efforts to broker a deal to end the three -year -long- war with Russia may be realizable. Throughout the entire conversation, if one includes his “facial expressions” and “body language”- the Ukrainian president left no doubt about his deeply rooted, obsessive hatred concerning President Putin; hence his constant arguing for more security guarantees from the US. As result of the failed meeting, the planned signing of the “rare earth deal” fell through and Zelensky left the White House with empty hands.
The well- known Austrian psychiatrist, Dr Raphael Bonelli (RPP) noted in a statement after he had analyzed the meeting at the White House, that if one looked carefully from beginning to the end, one could see right at the beginning already Zelensky’s line, who told Trump: “And I really count on your position to stop Putin. And you said that enough with the war. I think that it’s very important to say these words to Putin at the very beginning of war, because he is a killer and terrorist. But I hope that we together can stop him.” Trump throughout the discussion kept repeating “I want to stop this war,” while reiterating that the war should never and would never have started with him, leaving so many dead people and victims.”
Trump: “I’ve spoken to President Putin and I think, I mean, I feel very strong. I’ve known him for a long time and I feel very strongly that they are serious about it. (…) I want to make the deal first. I don’t worry about security right now. We have to have the deal because right now last week 2.000 soldiers died on both sides. They’re losing 1000, 2000, 3000 a week. So as we sit here and talk, people are getting shot and dying on the battlefield… What the Biden administration did, was terrible. (…) Think of the parents — whether they’re in Russia or Ukraine, think of the parents of all these people being killed needlessly. This all should never have started. This would have, if I were President, never have started.”
Again and again Zelensky came back to the issue of Putin: “Putin will never stop and will go further and further. He doesn’t want peace. He hates us….He hates Ukrainians (…) Putin began this war he has to pay all money for renovation. If we don’t stay, Russia will further go to the Baltics and to Poland..”
The discussion escalated at the point when Vice President Vance told Zelensky:“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy(!) that is ending the destruction of your country, Mr. President. With respect, I think its disrespectful for you to come to the Ova1 Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now your guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front line because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this country.”
Zelensky: “Did you say what problems we have?”
Vance: “Do you think it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
Zelensky aggressively: “What kind of diplomacy J.D.( sic) are you talking about? What do you mean?”
Vance: “I’m talking about the diplomacy that is going to end the destruction of your country.”
Trump then intervened at a point where Zelensky was saying that “during the war everyone has problems, but you have the ocean and you don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future(!)”
Trump: “Don’t tell us what to feel. We ‘re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we are going to feel. (…) you are in no position to dictate that. Remember you are in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We ‘re going to feel very good and very strong.” He added further: “You are gambling with the lives of millions of people(!) .. You don’t have the cards right now. (…) You’re gambling with World War III…. And what you are doing is very disrespectful to this country, that’s backing you. (…..) You are running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing. Then you tell us, I don’t want to ceasefire, I don’t want to ceasefire I want to go and I want this… If you could get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it, so the bullets stop flying and your men stop being killed….
Pubblicazione gratuita di libera circolazione Gli Autori non sono soggetti a compensi per le loro opere Se per errore qualche testo o immagine fosse pubblicato in via inappropriata chiediamo agli Autori di segnalarci il fatto e provvederemo alla sua cancellazione dal sito Qualsiasi richiesta ingiustificata verrà considerata un abuso e potrà essere segnalata alle autorità competenti
