Mr Zelensky should be at Friday's summit on Ukraine

The Australian

3 days ago

That is just what indicted war criminal Putin wanted: a rendezvous with the putative leader of the free world to burnish his own credentials in Russia and among his BRICS allies as the leader of a superpower rather than a rogue despot waging an illegal war against a much smaller neighbour.
Mr Zelensky, with the future of his nation at stake, should be at the summit. But Mr Trump, with his incomprehensible pandering to Putin, has demurred. Key issues such as the Russian tyrant's demand that his illegal annexation of Crimea and a third of Ukraine's territory be recognised by the world will be discussed without Kyiv's participation. Suggestions that Mr Zelensky may be invited to the next Trump-Putin summit do not measure up to the importance of the Alaska meeting. It will be vital to Mr Trump's legacy and US security as well as to Ukraine and the NATO/Western alliance, including Australia, helping fight Russia's lawless attack. After a few weeks of Mr Trump expressing frustration over Putin's refusal to negotiate a ceasefire, signs are that Mr Trump has gone through another 180-degree turn. His decision to let last Friday's deadline for imposing sanctions on Putin pass without acting and lashing out again at Mr Zelensky, saying he 'severely disagrees with what the Ukrainian President has done', was wrong.
No less egregious as a sign of US failure to grasp the importance of not allowing Putin to win in Ukraine was Vice-President JD Vance's cringeworthy insistence in Britain that Washington was 'done with the funding of the Ukraine war business'. Americans were sick of sending tax dollars to the conflict, he said. 'But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we're OK with that.' That was doubtless music to Putin's ears. Mr Trump may want to be known as the 'peacemaker President'. But what he needs to understand is that while peace is easy if concessions are made, durable peace in Ukraine will be achieved only if a settlement gives the country freedom to determine its future and the security and means to defend itself when Putin inevitably breaks his promises and returns to grab more territory. He did so after the 2014 and 2015 Minsk I and Minsk II agreements. Mr Trump cannot be so naive as to believe Putin won't do so again.