Kim Barker and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn of the New York Times open their report on the Ukrainian reaction to the Alaska Summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin with this:
The children’s author had violence in her heart.
Valentyna Shevchenko, 69, recently fled the home where she had lived for 21 years, a home now threatened by a new Russian offensive. And she was angry about the meeting in Alaska that was taking place between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
“It’s not right that the presidents of two other countries discuss our fate without us,” said Ms. Shevchenko, who clasped like talismans two poetry books she had written — one was called “A Wonderful Adventure” — while sitting on the edge of her bed in a shelter. She added that she would like to beat the two leaders with a wooden stick, or even a shovel.
“This is insane,” she said. “Here there is war, rivers of blood, and they are making some kind of deal.”
Saying “it’s not right,” is putting it mildly, which is of course why she added that she’d like to beat both leaders with a shovel. Trump is developing a pattern of hosting world leaders on American soil who have been charged with committing war crimes. In this case, he literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on March 17, 2023, for “the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).”
That’s actually only one of many possible indictments that could be sought against Putin for his unlawful invasion of Ukraine which the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) estimates has killed “13,883 civilians, including 726 children, and 35,548 injured, including 2,234 children.” Reputable estimates from the British Ministry of Defense and a study by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) place Russian casualties at approximately a million and Ukrainian casualties at half a million. And, for what? To protect Russia’s national security from an aggressive Europe?
I understand the impulse to want to end the violence almost irrespective of the terms, but “it’s not right” to reward Putin for his savagery. It’s not right to give him the royal treatment on American soil.
It’s also not right that Trump used the meeting to ditch plans for a cease fire prior to a negotiated settlement. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with Trump again in Washington DC. But, hoping to avoid the humiliation he suffered the last time he came to the White House, he will bring backup.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb confirmed Sunday that they will join Zelensky.
It sounds like they want to create some security guarantees for Ukraine so that its people can feel safe from a repeat invasion.
The support of European leaders in Washington is key, said Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“Trump now can do something only under colossal moral and political pressure from Western Europe,” Merezhko said in an interview before the European leaders announced plans to join the Monday meeting. “Otherwise, he will lean towards Putin’s side and support him.”
Trump may very well take Putin’s side irrespective of any moral pressure, because he has no morals. Political pressure also has little effect on him since he’s not legally permitted to seek reelection and doesn’t give a damn about Europe or the Western alliance. He sees them as enemies. On both of these things, he and Putin are exactly alike.
