When the Russians bombed civilians in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, an attack that caused dozens of deaths, the American president provided a shield for the Russians, saying that the poor things had just made a mistake.
Now, when less than two weeks after Sumy, the Russians committed the bloodiest attack on Kyiv in the last nine months, the same Donald Trump has tapped Putin on the cheek, scolding him for choosing a bad moment. From this, we can safely deduce that, in Trump’s view, there would still be suitable times for the killing and maiming of civilians, at least when it comes to the Russian army.
The attack in Sumy took place on Palm Sunday, on April 13. The attack in Kyiv happened on April 24.
But the two massacres ordered by Moscow’s generals were preceded by another attack on Krivoi Rog, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown.
On April 4, at least 20 people were killed, almost half of them children.
At the time, the U.S. reaction was as follows:
- The gregarious president was silent.
- His embassy in Kiev avoided mentioning the author – Russia (a fact that also attracted Zelensky’s criticism, quite elegant given the macabre circumstances: “the reaction of the American embassy is unpleasantly amazing”).
Krivoi Rog, Sumy and Kyiv are, of course, are simply the areas in Ukraine that made the news after the Russian army hit them with drone, missile and shell strikes, since Donald Trump became president and triggered the chaotic-savage peace negotiation process with Vladimir Putin.
All these episodes help us clearly understand the toxicity of the Trump administration’s actions and the true intentions of Putin’s dictatorship led by Putin.
The toxicity of the Trump administration’s actions is reflected by the president’s personal interests in achieving peace in Ukraine.
For Donald Trump, it is not the substance of the conflict that is key here, nor the direct and indirect consequences of an eventual agreement.
He is interested in concluding a quick deal at any cost, so he can boast about his “success” (and claim a Nobel Peace Prize) and to bring “success” to the product (starting business on a high footing between American oligarchs and Russian oligarchs, at the same time exploiting the mineral resources and the public budget in Ukraine to the last drop).
What other reasons can there be for Trump’s relentless pressure on Ukraine, what other reasons exist other than the blackmail applied to Ukraine’s European allies, what other reasons can there be for Trump’s extreme lack of sensitivity towards civilian casualties in Ukraine, finally, what other reasons are there to explain Trump’s fear of responding adequately to Putin and when the latter kills innocent people, and when the latter humiliates Washington by ignoring American demands even for such an unambitious temporary unconditional ceasefire?
As for the so-called peace process initiated by His Majesty, Trump put all his eggs in Putin’s basket from the start. And Putin takes advantage of this like a professional, systematically playing Trump like a fiddle: sometimes he pretends to drop the basket from his hand, sometimes he chops an egg, from time to time he makes an omelet.
In this way, the senior tyrant in Moscow regulates the behavior of the junior tyrant in Washington to his heart’s content.
The fact that this training exercise has already borne fruit for Moscow was recently confirmed by the American side itself. And it was confirmed in the clearest possible way: by what the peace plan proposed by the Americans looks like – so favorable to Russia, so explosively unfavorable to Ukraine, its neighbors and Europe in general.
The Russians’ intentions are also clearer than ever: there will never be peace if Moscow does not win the war with Ukraine, if it does not win the battle with America for the expulsion of NATO from the Eastern space, if it does not obtain the lifting of sanctions. All three together and at the same time.
Until then, the Kremlin’s expectations are that the thugs in the White House will continue as they started: undermining of Ukraine, undermining the US partnerships with the Europeans, with new and new steps to take Russia out of international isolation that followed the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, the Kremlin’s expectations from the White House thugs will continue in the related direction of “constructive” American no comment or idiotic comments by Trump or his representatives when the Russians either kill Ukrainian civilians or mock US ceasefire proposals.
Last but not least, it is not excluded that another expectation present in Putin’s mind, but not revealed by his words or by the words of his representatives, is that Trump will decide to withdraw the US from the peace talks.
It would be a logical expectation of the Russians, for several reasons:
- Russia is not interested in peace if it does not mean its victory on the multiple levels stated above.
- Putin, although he does not even have infinite time to continue the war, is not as pressed for time as Trump is.
- Finally, an eventual withdrawal of America from the peace talks could also be accompanied by an attempt by Trump to withdraw the US from the American-European effort to support Ukraine with weapons, money, intelligence. For the Russians, this track can only be tempting, worth trying, but it also requires attention to detail and an intelligent approach in preparing the ground. Of course, in such a scenario, not everything depends on the person of Donald Trump, because America has not (yet) reached the stage of democratic and institutional degeneration reached for years by Putin’s Russia, Lukashenko’s Belarus, Kim’s North Korea, even Orban’s Hungary. Moreover, even if Trump were to succeed in forcing his country to withdraw from the discussion table, and to withdraw military, financial and intelligence support for Kyiv, there remains the possibility that Europe and Ukraine will continue the partnership by trying to compensate for the possible void left by the Americans. It will not be easy, there will be new dramatic costs for Kyiv; But for Europeans and Ukrainians it is crucial to work together even without Americans, because giving up, as an alternative to action, will mean crushing each of the two sides. Certainly, Putin is aware of all these elements, he is aware of this flaw of such an expectation, but in the delicate situation in which the Russian dictator finds himself, after three years of war, this flaw is not ripe enough not to even try the sea with his finger.
As for how Trump will continue his chaotic-savage approach to achieve peace in Ukraine, regardless of whether he will eventually give up making peace between Russians and Ukrainians, one thing is certain today: Trump started by salivating at the Russian-Ukrainian file like a hammer, but ended up being trained by Putin, to have broken his teeth in Zelensky’s determination, to have been kept in chains by the awakening of Europeans.
The road, however, was so short from “The art of the deal” to “The art of the epic fail”.
Far-right Romanian presidential candidate photographed with Tate brothers PR person in the US
