MarkoT

BREAKING: TRUMP BETRAYAL! Zelensky reveals he offered the U.S. THREE OPTIONS to halt Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries — but Trump accepted NONE. President Volodymyr Zelensky just provided stark evidence of Donald Trump’s betrayal of America’s commitment to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion of its sovereign territory. Trump has been pressuring Zelensky to unilaterally stop taking out Russia’s oil refining infrastructure, but the Ukrainian leader said in an interview with the Kyiv Post that the United States has met none of the three conditions he says his country requires before agreeing to a stop to its successful campaign to cripple Russia’s revenue-generating energy businesses. Therefore, the strikes continue. Here are the conditions that Zelensky said that Trump can choose from to convince Ukraine to impose a ban on blowing up Putin’s petroleum refineries: Option one: an “energy truce,” where Russia stops hitting Ukraine’s power infrastructure. “That is fair,” Zelensky said, and it’s hard to argue with that. Expecting Ukraine to stop hitting Russia, while its opponent continues to bomb away, makes no sense at all. Option two: enable Starlink coverage over Russia so Ukraine can show the U.S. where Russian ballistic missile launchers are and destroy them. Zelensky noted that Trump’s team has said Elon Musk doesn’t want to. Who the f@#k cares what Elon Musk wants? If Musk continues to be an obstacle, the U.S. should nationalize Starlink on security grounds and turn Ukraine’s spigot back on. Option three: if Starlink is off the table, give Ukraine missiles for its Patriot systems, something that “doesn’t depend on Musk or Putin.” Given the fact that the American military has blown through a significant portion of its arsenal in the misbegotten Iran war, this last option might be the toughest for Trump to fulfill. “Ukraine had received none of the three proposed forms of support,” he said. “That is why the reaction is what it is. We are fighting for our lives.” Zelensky also argued the refinery strikes can’t move global prices much, since Russia accounts for only 2% of global diesel exports and the other 98% comes from elsewhere. Zelensky smartly warned against lifting sanctions on Russia before negotiations, saying they were imposed in response to aggression, “not as a price for the mere opportunity to talk.” He said lifting them early would leave Ukraine without leverage and that rebuilding support for new sanctions after more than 20 packages would be hard, a warning that lands after Trump waived sanctions and tariffs on Russia. “I do not want us to find ourselves without any leverage,” he said. Meanwhile, the U.S. delegation went to St. Petersburg after talks in Oslo and then gave Kyiv a briefing. Now a broad meeting between Ukraine, the U.S., the EU and NATO is planned in Brussels this week. As long as Trump is in Vladimir Putin’s pocket, however, the prospect for successful negotiations is slim to none. Of course, the Kyiv Post is only reporting Zelensky’s point of view. The White House has not responded yet to his comments. But one of his points is hard to dodge: Ukraine is being asked to hold back while the other side keeps firing. Only a fool like Donald Trump would expect any invaded country to agree to a deal like that. Please like and share if you think Russia should end the war by withdrawing its forces from Ukrainian territories!