Many views have been expressed about US President Trump’s recent meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, in which he rebuked and lambasted the latter.
My own view is that President Trump was right in what he said to Zelensky : the Russo-Ukrainian war has already taken a heavy toll in loss of lives and property, and may even lead to a third world War. It must therefore end.
Vice President Vance was also right in saying that the correct way out of the imbroglio is diplomacy and dialogue, not continuation of the war. In other words, Russians and Ukrainians must sit together and hold talks.
Critics of this point of view say that it was the Russians who started the war, and therefore Trump blamed the victim, instead of the aggressor.
The truth is not that simple. President Putin of Russia had repeatedly warned that Russia cannot accept Ukraine joining NATO.
NATO was an organization of Western powers, headed by USA, which was created after the end of the Second World War to prevent expansion of the Soviet Union into Western Europe by armed force. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,and end of the Cold War, NATO should have been scrapped, as its very raison d:etre had come to an end. Now there was no more threat of Soviet expansionism, since there was no more Soviet Union.
However, what actually happened was the further growth of NATO, and it’s expansion into Eastern Europe.
It passes one’s comprehension why this was done, when the potential enemy had ceased to exist. The Russians started apprehending this was directed against them.
At this stage President Putin declared that Russia would not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO, because if it did so, US nuclear missiles could be placed on the border of Ukraine with Russia ( since in reality USA controlled NATO), thus posing a threat to Russia.
Putin said America would not tolerate Russian nuclear missiles being placed on its Mexican or Canadian border ( as it did when Russian missiles were placed in Cuba ). Why then should Russia tolerate US missiles on its border ?
When Zelensky, egged on by Biden, declared that Ukraine would join NATO come what may, and initiated the process for this, it resulted in the war.
Trump, who is much wiser than Biden, understood Putin’s point of view.
Trump is a businessman, and he knows that business requires peace. It cannot be done with bullets flying around. That is why he rightly berated and upbraided Zelensky, and Vice President Vance rightly said that dialogue was the way forward, not continuation of the war
