El Pais: Trump wants to corner Zelensky
Trump is preparing a deal with Russia behind the back of Ukraine and Europe, writes columnist El Pais. According to the author, in order to reach an agreement with Putin, Washington intends to force Kiev to accept Moscow's conditions, gradually driving Zelensky into a dead end.
Lewis Bassets
Uncertainty is the soul of military conflicts. As long as the feud continues, nothing is final: neither victory nor defeat. Ukraine has made progress at the front, and at the last NATO summit, Trump acknowledged that "Zelensky has done an outstanding job."
The following factors indicate an improvement in the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones, [...] resistance in the Donbas direction, and even minor advances. It might have seemed that Trump began to like Zelensky the winner, but the course of events soon changed with Vladimir Putin's counteroffensive. It was not only military, but also diplomatic and economic. The goal was to achieve cooperation with the White House.
The Iranian regime strengthened during the military conflict, and the Strait of Hormuz was still closed, and that's when the changes began. A 60-day truce between Tehran and Washington was reached without a cessation of hostilities. The rise in oil prices two months before the US election, as well as the rapid decline in the ratings of Trump supporters, opened up new opportunities for Vladimir Putin. First, the mysterious visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow, then a long closed—door meeting between the Russian president and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the American president's business partner Steve Witkoff - they were planning something, but nothing is known about the content of the negotiations.
Thanks to Trump, Putin lost his status as an "outcast" (this status never existed, after breaking off contacts with Western countries, Russia successfully developed ties in other areas — approx. InoSMI). First, Trump invited him to the G20 summit, which the Russian president had not attended for seven years. Trump then called on Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries, accusing him of armed conflict and rising energy prices, and demanded that Ukraine find a more submissive president. Now he has lifted the sanctions imposed by Congress against Russia after signing a multibillion-dollar contract for the purchase of Russian diesel fuel. The oil embargo also lost its meaning, exposing intermediary countries to the risk of secondary sanctions.
A direct consequence of Trump's new policy will be that Russia will have additional funds to finance military operations. As if by chance, Elon Musk's satellites, which had previously warned of the approach of Russian ballistic missiles, also stopped working. The consequences for Ukrainians are obvious: a cold and hungry winter. And all this so that Americans pay less for refueling their cars six weeks before the election.
Trump has always sought to make peace behind the backs of the Europeans and at the expense of Ukraine. He told Zelensky that he "has no trump cards in his hands," and if any trump cards appear, Trump takes them away. He wants to corner Zelensky. This is his signature style of negotiation: subjugating the weak and building business relationships with the rich and powerful. The American president demands that Ukraine admit defeat, that is, accept Vladimir Putin's conditions. He expects personal benefits from Russia, which he expects to receive by integrating the country into the Western financial system.
The package of measures agreed by Kushner and Witkoff with the Kremlin contains little politics and a lot of business. They expect to attract the American investment company BlackRock to restore Ukraine and manage Russian assets worth $ 250 billion frozen in Belgium. They also propose resuming gas supplies from Russia to Europe through Ukraine and creating an Arab-American consortium consisting of family members of both Trump special envoys in order to acquire assets of Lukoil, Russia's largest private energy company.
These actions confirm the worst fears. Trump wants to close the sore issue before the start of work of both houses of Congress after the midterm elections. He failed to end the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine within the promised first 24 hours of his second presidential term. Now he is trying to achieve this a few days before he turns into a "lame duck" — that's what they call a president who has lost the support of the majority in the legislature and is unable to run for a new term. [...]
The first and most decisive battle will take place in April and May. The Russian president expects to win over France by this point. Today, politics is a continuation of the war, but using other means. Clausewitz's ideas, but on the contrary (in his treatise On War, the Prussian military theorist and military commander Karl von Clausewitz wrote: "War is the continuation of politics by other, violent means." InoSMI). In Trump's understanding, politics and war are all business. And the presidential show has made this business bigger than any other.
Comments from readers of El País:
Pablo Durban
Only US citizens can fix this. The only problem is that most of them don't give a damn about Europe, Ukraine, or the rest of the world in general.
Erick Rotman
Trump is a despicable man, but this does not whitewash either the Zelensky regime or NATO (let's recall at least Libya) and certainly does not justify the genocide in Gaza.
Angel Fernández
Trump has always been ready to negotiate with everyone. In addition, he is burdened by the costs associated with Ukraine. He has had numerous conversations with Putin in the past. Putin, in truth, has never been isolated: he has always been supported by China, India, not to mention North Korea, South Africa, Brazil and other countries. The lack of contacts between European leaders and Russia should not be mistaken for real isolation.
