As President Trump Spars with Zelensky on Television, Will a Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine End Up Becoming Reality?
On Friday, March 1st, 2025, President Donald Trump and Vice President James David (JD) Vance engaged in a reality television and dramatic showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (was it staged?), but aside from the cheap shots at Zelensky’s casual attire at the White House (who really cares what he was wearing?), the overall exchange hinted at the new approach that the Trump administration will have toward the stagnant war that has cost Americans dearly while benefiting the military-industrial complex. Finally, someone put the entitled brat that is Zelensky in his place, and we can start to move toward a diplomatic resolution to the three-year conflict (if you are interested, I drew up an idea for a peace deal roughly two years ago). Without free access to American taxpayer dollars, Ukraine will be forced to fight on its own and risk losing more territory to Russia, rely on Europe to militarize and provide increased support, or agree to a ceasefire and peace plan that will benefit citizens of all countries involved.
Of course, the liberals and progressives-turned-war hawks (what happened to their anti-war stance?) are upset with the Trump administration for “abandoning” Zelensky and daring to want peace (some even go as far as to say that President Trump needs to be impeached over it, but for what exact crime is unclear). Some will argue that Russian President Vladimir Putin only understands force and cannot be trusted to act diplomatically, and others utilize the same tired “domino theory” argument that war hawks never abandon: if Ukraine falls, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and all of Europe will be the next victims of a Russian invasion. Basically, in order to prevent war, we need to continue funneling money to corrupt politicians in Ukraine and engage in or start more wars to end the existing ones (this is like arguing that to stop terrorism, we need to bomb every country in the Middle East into oblivion and then hope that the terrorists just go away and do not regroup and retaliate). From this view, Zelensky is actually doing us a favor by protecting democracies throughout Europe and holding the expansionist Russia at bay (as Zelensky put it, “But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future”), but if the people who hold these beliefs followed this through to its logical conclusion, they are ultimately saying that Russia is such a threat that Americans and Europeans must be willing to jump on the battlefield and engage directly with Russian troops when Ukraine is unable to hold its ground (if Russia is really that much of a threat, they would advocate for directly engaging with it now in a hot war to prevent the rest of Europe from falling in the future, but no, they do not actually believe what they say, and neither do European leaders).
Understandably, we have been conditioned from birth to hate Russians, think of Putin as a bogeyman who wants to conquer all of Europe, and see the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the only thing standing in Russia’s way, but if Russia began recruiting Latin America and the Caribbean and North Atlantic nations into an alliance and stationing troops and missiles within miles of the United States, would we just lay over and not punch back against the perceived threat (if Russia had missiles in Cuba, Mexico, and the Bahamas pointing in the direction of American cities, would you feel safe?)? Why, then, do we expect Russia not to do the same thing when the United States has pushed its troops and missiles up against Russia’s doorstep? Russia has been warning about NATO expansion for years, but until 2022, it fell on deaf ears (only an invasion got the West’s attention). Until we understand the perspectives of our enemies, we cannot have any hope of finding peaceful solutions to our most difficult conflicts.
The Russo-Ukrainian War has not really changed much in the last several months in terms of gains and losses, and Russia continues to maintain about 20% of Ukrainian territory (Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts), while Ukraine has held onto a sliver of Russian land in Kursk Oblast (as a negotiating tactic). The stalemate that has continued has not really made anyone’s lives any better, but of course, with the death and destruction of the Ukrainian people and their infrastructure comes exorbitant profits to the American (and European) defense corporations, as they get to manufacture and supply weapons to keep Kiev’s military afloat (progressives used to be against the military-industrial complex, but oh my, how times have changed). It is time that the war ends, and with the Trump administration in charge, there is a real possibility that this could become reality. Of course, the Ukrainian government could find a way to sabotage such deals and conduct false flag operations to be blamed on Russia, but President Trump has suggested that although he will not allow Ukraine to join NATO, he would try his hardest to get Ukraine back as much territory as possible (on a separate diplomatic note, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has even ordered the United States Cyber Command to “halt” policies regarding offensive, not defensive, cyber and information operations against Russia, and this shows that despite years of propaganda about the evil Putin cyberattacking the United States, the federal government was engaging in just as many cyberattacks against Russia as Russia was against the United States).
After the tense exchange at the White House that led to Zelensky’s removal from the building, he went crying to European leaders who are deciding what to do in the wake of President Trump temporarily freezing all aid to Ukraine (to ensure that it is aligned with objectives that lead toward peace) and Zelensky suggesting that the conclusion of the war “is still very, very far away.” Although European leaders may be treating Zelensky like he is a small child who had his feelings hurt, the implications run deep. Clearly, the Ukrainian president is not interested in negotiating peace, and if Europe is enabling his behavior and guaranteeing security to his country in the midst of waning American support, it could mean that the war will not end for the foreseeable future. Will President Trump hold strong and attempt to prevent the United States’ support for an unnecessary war, or will he cave to the pressures of the military-industrial complex and its Democratic supporters and allow the status quo to continue indefinitely? Time will tell, but there is still some hope, as even British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are at least willing to negotiate a temporary ceasefire (not necessarily a full-scale peace deal).
Regardless, the minerals agreement that Zelensky was expected to sign may have fallen through (this would see the United States splitting the potential $500 billion in profit from mining oil, gas, lithium, graphite, uranium, titanium, cobalt, and other rare-earth elements that are crucial to the development of “defense, aerospace, technology and energy production”), since the Ukrainian president would prefer to nurse his wounds than swallow his pride and do what is best for his people by ending the bloodshed and destruction of infrastructure (though there is some indication that he is willing to renegotiate the terms of the deal). Although this is not surprising coming from a dictator who has declared martial law and suspended elections, banned opposition parties, prohibited the free practice by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (connected to the Russian Orthodox religion), and limited free speech and press (even consolidating television networks in order to spread state-mandated propaganda); the United States has contributed over $180 billion in aid to Ukraine since 2022 (not including military and financial support to Kiev when it was bombing the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk from 2014 to 2022). As President Trump and Vice President Vance correctly pointed out, Zelensky is not only risking World War III, but he has lacked gratitude and is reluctant to pay American taxpayers back and allow access to his country’s rich source of minerals (this is not to say that Ukraine should be exploited or drained of its resources, but a deal allowing for the money paid by the United States to be recouped to the exact dollar amount would be warranted). Simply put, Zelensky feels entitled to Americans’ money and believes that the aid should be a handout and welfare program (I certainly did not approve of my tax dollars being sent to oligarchs in Ukraine or American corporations to manufacture new weapons to replace those being used to kill Russians).
As Russia launches its “largest-ever” bombardment against Ukraine and Ukraine destroyed an oil refinery within Russian territory, the supposed peace deal that we thought was almost certain seems to be falling apart. It is almost like there are some powers behind the scenes sabotaging the efforts to reach diplomatic solutions and halt the welfare programs to defense corporations. The world is watching as the situation in Ukraine becomes uncertain, but it seems like for now, the death and destruction will continue until level heads can prevail. Will Americans demand that their tax dollars cease to fund a stalemate thousands of miles removed from their daily lives?
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.