Kyiv, EU alarmed by prospect of 'dirty deal' after Trump-Putin call
Source: Reuters
Kyiv and its European allies demanded on Thursday that they be included in any peace negotiations, after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia's Vladimir Putin and said Ukraine could neither have all of its land back nor join NATO.
Russia's financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine's debt rose at the prospect of the first peace talks since the early months of Europe's deadliest war since World War Two, soon to enter its fourth year.
But Trump's unilateral overture to Putin, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine's principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in NATO who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.
"We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine officials say US is 'appeasing' Russia with talks in Riyadh
Source: The Guardian
It was absurd for Moscow to talk about peace while killing Ukrainians, said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office. The latest salvo of 176 drones fired at Ukraine represented Russia’s actual “negotiating position”, he posted.
Without criticising the Trump administration directly, he said the high-level US-Russia talks had not been properly prepared, adding that they were merely a forum for more Russian “ultimatums”.
“Encouragement rather than coercion, a voluntary and bizarre renunciation of strength in favour of disheartening and unmotivated appeasement of the aggressor,” Podolyak wrote, summing up Kyiv’s negative reaction.
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More immediately, there were concerns that a Trump-Putin deal would demand that Ukraine hold elections immediately after a ceasefire came into force, and before any final agreement was reached. The goal, Ukrainian commentators suggested, would be to replace Zelenskyy with a weaker leader, or even a pro-Russian candidate.
United States votes With Russia, North Korea, And Belarus in U N On Ukraine Resolution
The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday on a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for its occupied territory to be returned that passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.
An administration official openly chided Zelenskyy on his attire. Winston Churchill wore this when he visited the White House when his country was at war.
Others have pointed out that Elon Musk also shows up at the White House not wearing a coat and tie.
Thank you for constant update. As an American I feel deep shame we turned our back on our ally. If we can't honor our word, we are no better than the Russians.
Russia is finding it "significantly" harder to conduct combat operations against Ukraine because of a rise in Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian weapons supplies, ammunition depots and fuel refineries, a senior commander has said.
Brigadier General Yuriy Shchygol signalled these attacks would grow, revealing that his country plans to more than quadruple the production rate of deep strike drones - with a range of hundreds of miles - to more than 2,000 aircraft a month.
Ukraine has been intensifying the tempo of its long-range drone strikes against targets inside Russia and Russian-occupied territory since late December - demonstrating what defence sources say is a world-leading capability that the Kremlin is struggling to counter.
Former President of Poland, Lech Walesa, wrote the following letter to Trump:
Your Excellency, Mr. President,
We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin’s russia. We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.
Our alarm was also heightened by the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation, which reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the Security Services and the debates in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist political police, would explain to us that they held all the power while we held none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us. They stripped us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government or express gratitude for our oppression. We are shocked that President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated in the same manner.
The history of the 20th century shows that whenever the United States sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ultimately became a threat to itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this when he decided in 1917 that the United States must join World War I. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he resolved that the war to defend America must be fought not only in the Pacific but also in Europe, in alliance with the nations under attack by the Third Reich.
We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and America’s financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan recognized that millions of enslaved people suffered in Soviet russia and the countries it had subjugated, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their defense of democratic values with their freedom. His greatness lay, among other things, in his unwavering decision to call the USSR an “Empire of Evil” and to fight it decisively. We won, and today, the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands in Warsaw, facing the U.S. Embassy.
Mr. President, material aid—military and financial—can never be equated with the blood shed in the name of Ukraine’s independence and the freedom of Europe and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude is due to those who sacrifice their blood and their freedom. This is self-evident to us, the people of Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime under Soviet russia.
We call on the United States to uphold the guarantees made alongside Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which established a direct obligation to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear weapons. These guarantees are unconditional—there is no mention of treating such assistance as an economic transaction.
Lech Wałęsa, former political prisoner, President of Poland
Donald Trump has now banned UK from sharing any US military intelligence with Ukraine
Source: The Mirror
The US has banned Britain from sharing intelligence from Washington with Ukraine, according to reports. Donald Trump, 78, is said to have made the move as part of the US' alarming withdrawal of support for Volodymyr Zelensky. There are already concerns Ukraine could run out of weapons in as little as two to three months' time following Mr Trump's decision to freeze American military aid to Kyiv.
And now reports claim all UK intelligence agencies and military outlets have received an order expressly forbidding the sharing of US-generated intelligence, previously known as "Rel UKR" - short for Releasable to Ukraine.
It is another huge blow for Mr Zelensky, 47, as the UK and other Western security partners such as Australia and New Zealand have shared such knowledge with Ukraine since the conflict began three years ago. As Russia's onslaught continues, it is feared the ban will further hamper Ukraine's chances to defend itself.
The ban affects the likes of the UK's GCHQ, the spy agencies and intelligence branches of the Ministry of Defence. Phil Ingram, a UK military intelligence expert, told the Daily Mail: "The United States's instruction to stop allies sharing US-derived intelligence with Ukraine is what I would expect. The US's intelligence partners, including Britain, have had their authority to pass on intelligence revoked. The US will tightly control distribution of its intelligence to Ukraine through agencies based in Kyiv."
