Posted on 02/21/2025 4:42:31 AM PST by marcusmaximus
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky angered Donald Trump so much during the peace talks with Russia that Trump was on the verge of withdrawing American military support from Ukraine, three U.S. officials familiar with the discussions tell Axios.
-snip-
The deal Trump appears to be negotiating could be highly controversial. Based on their public and private statements, Trump's team is expected to pressure Zelensky into giving up Crimea (which Putin seized in 2014) portions of eastern Ukraine and the Azov Coast (occupied in Russia's 2022 invasion).
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
Working for free now that the USAID propaganda funds dried up?
Being born; being weird: being a weird president; wanting war instead of peace: taking lots of money for himself and his cronies; oh and 6 telling Trump to piss up a rope.
Feb. 12: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Zelensky in Kyiv to offer a proposal that would give the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral rights in return for de facto U.S. protection. Trump later told reporters Zelensky was “rude” and delayed his meeting with Bessent because he slept in.
Feb. 14: At the Munich Security Conference, Vance and Rubio met Zelensky to get his approval for the mineral rights deal. But, the officials said, Zelensky surprised the Americans by saying he didn’t have the authority to unilaterally approve it without parliament.
Feb. 15: Zelensky publicly rejected the offer at the conference. White House sources noted that his remarks to reporters — that the deal was “not in the interests of a sovereign Ukraine” — were markedly different from more positive-sounding comments he’d made on X the day before.
Feb. 18: As Rubio, Waltz and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff sat down with Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia to talk peace, Zelensky criticized the meeting for occurring without Ukraine at the table. An angry Trump then lashed out at Zelensky at a Mar-a-Lago press conference, falsely suggesting Zelensky had started the war with Russia and had an approval rating of only 4%.
Feb. 19: Zelensky fired back, saying the U.S. president “lives in a disinformation space.” Trump then ratcheted up the pressure by posting on Truth Social that Zelensky, a former actor, was a “modestly successful comedian” who has become a “dictator without elections.” Trump has refused to criticize Putin as a dictator.
The Crimea was ethnically Russian, had been part of Russia since Catherine the Great [before the US was a country], and the deep state was maneuvering to cut off Russian access to the Black Sea. Oh and the continued advancement of the what we now know to be war mongering expansionist anti-democratic NATO/ EU.
I’d say that’s been the end game for a very long time.
Catherine got it when Poland was partitioned.
Catherine the Great’s incorporated the Crimea in 1783 from the defeated Ottoman Empire
Axios wrote those 5 points with a leftist slant.
I have a feeling a couple other points not mentioned is Mr Z is a pervert, typical of our communist democrats and that he is a grifter, also typical of our home grown commies.
It would be funny if part of the peace agreement would be to hand Zelensky over to Putin for war crimes.
Eventually Turkey will try to get it back.
But it was mostly Tatars at that time, not Ukrainians. Russia pushed the Tatars out and populated it with Russians. It wasn’t ever Ukrainian. Stahlin assigned it to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic as and administrative act for its administration.
“Cocaine is a helluva drug”
Honestly, Marcus, Ukraine is NEVER going to win those back in any battle.
They should just agree. Reluctantly or unhappily, but agree.
It stops the war they cannot win. And I say this as someone who wishes them well.
If Ukraine gives those territories up, they should be able to join NATO in return. Otherwise, the Russians will come back for the rest later, as the Nazis did with Czechoslovakia after the Munich agreement.
Which of-course, leads to Putin taking more after his military gets stronger. Corruption abounds in both countries and Zelensky's alignment with Western liberal morality* in seeking their favor is suicidal.
However, only one country (outside China) is at present an ongoing military threat to the US (and has wicked allies: China, Iran, etc.), and with whom the US has fought proxy wars for over 70 years, flowing from an alliance with wicked Stalin and material aid given in that interest.
With an overthrow of Putin, could ideally, enable Trump to help rebuild Russia as an ally of the US. Which opportunity I think the US missed in the 90's, taking advantage of Russia's weakness, while the pervading culture of corruption (and Russian mafia) enabled the rise of Putin under the premise of MRGA.
*liberal abortion laws and in 2019, Zelensky commented “Leave those people [the LGBTQ community] alone, for God’s sake,” which is the opposite of God, though as yet same-sex couples are explicitly banned from adoption and there are no legal grounds for same-sex marriage and civil partnerships in Ukraine, but in December 2022, the Ukrainian Parliament unanimously passed a bill that banned hate speech and discrimination against LGBTQ people in mass media. The provision was included in the media regulation bill, which was one of the main requirements for approval of Ukraine’s EU candidacy status. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_rights_in_Ukraine)
The problem with Russia is their Muslim population, if you weaken Russsia, the Turks will take advantage. The US won’t be the winner, Turkey will be.
“The conflict between Trump and Zelensky escalated into a war of words between the two that scared European allies who are worried...”
Sounds like mom and dad are fighting again and the kids are afraid. Western European allies are completely useless
“Otherwise, the Russians will come back for the rest later, as the Nazis did with Czechoslovakia after the Munich agreement.”
No one ever explains WHY Russia would want to take over non-Russian lands, beyond claiming they can read Putin’s mind, and that’s what they see happening.
Awesome to hear the negotiations are progressing.
General Kellogg is still in Kyiv and will walk away with a “minerals” deal before Monday.
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