To sign an already-negotiated agreement granting US rights to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals, which America considers essential. Then bask in the security of knowing that a critical ally’s vested interest lay in eternally defending his nation.
Instead, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly lectured Donald Trump on the impossibility of a ceasefire with Russia and the need for indefinite US support. Causing him to get booted from the White House as the deal collapsed on his head.
“This will make great television,” Trump quipped following the globally televised fiasco, and indeed it did.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely support Ukraine’s grim struggle for survival against a ruthless invader. And my tax dollars have helped empower the soldiers courageously sustaining that struggle.
That said, however, I am also cognizant of several ruthless truths. First, that after three years and countless casualties on both sides, the war has reached a bloody stalemate. Second, that the mood in America has shifted away from supporting forever wars in faraway places. And, finally, that Trump probably has the best chance of negotiating a ceasefire now.
All of which meant that Zelensky’s sole task during his recent Washington visit was to sign that damn agreement while postponing, and keeping private, any discussion of his needs and/or reservations regarding a potential ceasefire.
That he chose not to, unfortunately, only strengthened his Russian foes.
To be sure, the Ukrainian president later said he was open to signing the minerals deal. And Europeans immediately stepped in to try and save the day. “We’ve agreed that the UK, France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said following a London summit comprising a “coalition of the willing.” Its mission: to provide military assets, including troops, to secure an eventual peace. Europe must “do the heavy lifting,” Starmer said, “at [this] crossroads in history.”
The big question, of course, is whether it was too little too late. Though Zelensky later expressed gratitude for America’s past support, he stopped short of apologizing for his part in the Washington argument while reiterating his unwillingness to accept a ceasefire without certain undisclosed “security assurances.”
Which prompted Trump to pause all military aid and intelligence to Ukraine. “The President has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a spokesperson said. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
Reactions in America and worldwide ranged from venomous hisses of displeasure by those who hate Trump and believe he’s ushering in a Satanic world of darkness, to wild cheers from those who swear his excrement smells like perfume and call him the new Prince of Light.
As for me, well, my own sentiments hovered somewhere in between, as in, oh what a mess!
I’m enough of a pessimist, of course, to fear that those haters may be right. Yet enough of a realist to suspect that Trump, as has happened before, could simply be several moves ahead of us in a complex chess game way above my pay grade.
That analysis gained the upper hand last week when the Great Satan said he’d received a letter from Zelensky describing the Washington debacle as “regrettable” and expressing his willingness to come to the table. “I appreciate that he sent the letter,” the President told a joint session of Congress, adding that he has already “received strong signals” that Russia is ready for peace. “It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing” and “end the senseless war.”
One of my good friends, not usually prone to conspiracy theories, believes the whole thing was orchestrated to bring an otherwise unwilling Russian Premier Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table believing that Trump’s on his side.
Just a few days too late, unfortunately, for the Academy Awards. But, hey, there’s always next year.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author with homes in Northern Mindanao and Southern California. His latest book, Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise, is now available for preorder on Amazon. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times.
