Zelensky may be morally right
I had na interesting watch about this disastrous meeting on Polish news channel TVN24. There were three experts giving their take on what happened - I don't know who the first lady was, but probably an expert on diplomacy, the second was a historian and the third - a retired military man.
1. The diplomacy aspect - that lady said what more or less I was thinking - that Zelensky was talking with the language of morality and Trump was talking with the language of strength/power and those are two completely different worlds that won't have anything in common. So for the Zelensky to succeed - he would have to talk to Trump with the language of business, because Trump doesn't and won't care about morality. He only cares about what the US can get out of this. And he wants his ego to be stroked. That's the brutal truth. And so, she said, Zelensky was morally right, but his behaviour was a mistake from the tactical point of view - he let himself get provoked.
2. The historian was talking about similarities to Yalta and Chamberlain's appeasement policy and that Poles were treated by the West in the same way. He hopes that won't be the fate of Ukraine.
3. The retired military guy's take was interesting. Actually he made a few interesting points and I don't know if I remember everything:
- So, his guess is that maybe RuSSia didn't agree to negotiations or maybe RuSSia wants too much - so much that even Trump couldn't agree to such conditions. And for this reason Trump and Vance decided to provoke Zelensky, so it would look like to the American public that it's Zelensky's fault that the peace negotiations aren't succeeding.
- He was saying that Ukraine is buying us time - the longer they fight, the longer there are sanctions put on RuSSia the more time we have to prepare for potential RuSSian invasion.
- He said that RuSSia is in a difficult situation too and a ceasefire and lifting up sactions would just give RuSSia a breather to regain strength.
- He was also talking about US military equipment. If the EU starts developing, producing and using their own military stuff it's going to be, of course, a blow to the US military industry.
And another important thing that he said, I think, is that the conclusion that should be drawn from this war is that if Poland continues to buy American military equipment we should have it written down in contracts that we will be allowed to use these weapons when and how
we deem necessary - that it shouldn't be for Washington to decide.
And, of course, he said that Europe has to help Ukraine - Ukraine can't fall - it is essential.