Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have died resisting Russian domination, many correctly believing they are also helping to delay the next incursion into Europe, which will come after Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine. Most of them probably don’t have much time for the sort of cozy Americans who to think the suspension of Russia’s “counter-terrorism operation” in Chechnya was achieved on anything like reasonable terms for locals. Sure, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to play along with the farcical negotiations. Fatigue is setting in among the people he represents, especially as American and European support wavers. Nevertheless, it is despicable for Americans to demand Ukrainian capitulation, especially as Donald Trump and his gangster leadership are conducting their war against Iran, and helping Israel achieve its long desired living space in Gaza.
Ukraine will be jerked around by Vladimir Putin whether or not a piece of paper is waved around, just as the likes of Jared Kushner will oversee real estate deals in Palestine, regardless of what Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump cajole the Palestinians into signing. And, as for the threat of nuclear war — it already is dire. It will only be more so when Trump forces the Ukrainians into signing any treaty with the current regime in Russia. It will prove to Putin that his bite and hold strategy worked, to be used again, elsewhere on the NATO frontier. Any one-sided ceasefire will be used by Putin to rearm and to reenforce defenses, while the West loses focus and the lesson is learned worldwide that aggression is rewarded, not only in Ukraine but anywhere that a larger nation faces a smaller one that does not have loyal allies.
Sean Norton
Turners Falls