Friday, presidents Trump and Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska, and discussed the future of the Donbas region in Ukraine (see previous post). Today, however, with Zelensky and seven other European leaders in Washington to meet with Trump, the discussion covered all the Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia. And Putin wants to keep it. All of it.
What if anything results from today’s gathering is anyone’s guess, particularly since Putin was not in attendance. If, as Trump keeps saying, the next step is a trilateral meeting with Putin, Zelensky, and himself, today’s decisions could be moot.
(Late in the day, after a phone call with Putin, Trump said he was trying to arrange a meeting between Putin and Zelensky prior to a trilateral meeting.)
Putin can’t be trusted to keep his word, Trump constantly changes his positions, and poor Zelensky could end up exactly where he was four days ago, with 20% of his country occupied by and under fire from Russian troops.
You’re right, Zelensky is in a tough position. His country is dependent on its allies and most of all the U.S. for the high-tech armaments which have enabled its survival so far. U.S. intelligence support also has been crucial for drone-targeting. U.S. satellites are fantastic.
I was encouraged that seven European leaders dropped everything to come to Washington with Zelensky. At least there wasn’t another bullying incident. I hope it means they will be more supportive of Ukraine in the future, because I wouldn’t trust Trump to keep his word about anything. Seriously, after he abruptly stopped the aid we’d promised to Ukraine — in the middle of the war with Russia … and then resumed some of it in exchange for access to rare earth minerals … and then … who knows. You can’t trust anything he says or does.