Trump Jr said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was prolonging the war because he knew he would never win an election if it ended. He said Zelenskyy was a borderline deity on the left, but argued that Ukraine was far more corrupt than Russia.
He also railed at the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, saying European sanctions were not working since they had simply increased the price of oil, from which Russia could pay for its war. He described the European plan as “we are going to wait for Russia to go bankrupt – that is not a plan”
– Guardian Reporting, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/07/us-may-end-support-for-ukraine-war-effort-says-donald-trump-jr
When Ukraine disarmed its nuclear weapons in the 1990s, it signed on to the Budapest Memorandum with the US, Russia, and UK as a security assurance against future attacks. Unfortunately, this document proved repeatedly worthless when in 2014 and then again in 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. The American response was, for a time, to prop up Ukraine with guns, bullets, anti-air weapons, and battlefield intelligence. It was a strict policy of the USA, however, that it would not allow Ukraine to directly attack Russia. Indeed, aircraft capable of bombing Russia and missiles capable of striking Russian soil were not granted.
Imagine a world where, upon the first Russian boot landing in Ukrainian soil on that February day in 2022, Ukraine responded immediately with B2 stealth bombers destroying large swathes of Moscow. Imagine the timeline where Russian cities met the same devastation as Ukrainian cities, and Russian citizens were forced to contend with the reality of war as directly as their Ukrainian counterparts. I think if that were even a possibility, Russia would not have invaded in the first place. Because if it had, Nuclear War would have quickly ensued, because Russia would be destroyed otherwise.
Unfortunately, we went through the Biden proxy war timeline. “Sanctions” against Russia by Europe and the USA merely solidified a new Eastern economy where China and India use Russia as a market. Europe itself cannot even ween itself off of Russian oil, so it continues to deal directly with Russia even as its politicians decry it. In short, the USA and Europe did nothing as Russia spent months amassing an invading force at Ukraine’s border. Putin was confident that sanctions and some tough battlefield losses would be all the pain he would experience from his attack. Since then, sanctions and tough battlefield losses are all the punishment he has received. Economic pain at home only helps Putin’s regime, which clings to power through the continuous inundation of his own population with fear and crisis.
Within a year of the start of Russia’s invasion, Republicans rallied with Russia and began denying assistance to Ukraine. Now, with Trump at the helm, the thought of a real military punishment for Russia’s invasion is a pipe dream. Trump is negotiating a settlement on Russia’s behalf that will see Ukraine disarmed and its territory cut apart and given over to Putin.
The only hope for Ukrainians now is that their spirit is stronger than the oppressors’ desire to possess their land. Like the Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation, the Ukrainians must be willing to endure hell on Earth to resist extermination. Is there a way out? I don’t know. Did the Chinese believe there would be a way out when the Japanese invaded in WWII? Did Europe believe there would be a way out during the Nazi occupation? Did Eastern Europe ever believe there would be a day when the iron curtain fell? Did the British hunkering in the subway believe they would ever walk free in London again when it had been reduced to rubble?
History shows us that incredible odds can be beaten when people resist conquest. The spirit of freedom is not so easily destroyed by despots. Even Putin’s Russia may someday collapse, as Stalin’s USSR did not three decades ago. Maybe within our lifetime, we will see Putin get what he deserves. I have a bad feeling, though, that American blood will spill to achieve that.
And to Trump Jr’s assertion that Ukraine is a corrupt state as contemptible as its invader…. HA! You cannot stand on the steps of the Kremlin holding up a sign saying “Putin Stinks!” without being beaten and dragged away to an arctic labor camp. The Trump family is not capable of understanding freedom. As a family of rent seekers, they see the subjugation of others into hierarchies and classes as the natural order of things. Freedom cannot flourish in America and the world until the Trumps are banished from politics forever. Like Midas, they would rather have a dead country gilded with gold upon every surface than a thriving, free America fighting for a better world.
