<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/19/kyivs-white-house-wooing-implodes-as-zelenskyy-tells-the-truth-about-trump>
"All the effort Kyiv had expended in wooing the White House, combining flattery
with bribery and a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, imploded in minutes when
Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the fundamental rule of the new global reality: he
told the truth about Donald Trump.
All America’s allies, the great majority of Republican leaders who have bowed
to him, and a good number of his own cabinet, know full well that Trump is
trapped in a disinformation bubble, but Zelenskyy said it out loud at a press
conference on Wednesday.
In this new world where the foreign policy of the most powerful country on
Earth has been rapidly reorganised around the fragile ego of a sullen and
resentful old man, you might as well launch missiles at America’s eastern
seaboard as utter a few words of rebuke.
Zelenskyy was aware of this. On Tuesday, he had complained that his country was
being excluded from talks about its fate between the US and Russia in Riyadh.
They were “about Ukraine but without Ukraine”, he said.
It was a fair point. What happened in Riyadh was an upending of western policy
towards Ukraine, but none of that matters any more. This is year zero as far as
Trump, Elon Musk and their supporters are concerned. The Ukrainian president’s
gripe triggered a meltdown in Mar-a-Lago, where Trump told stunned reporters
that Ukraine had started the war, and that Zelenskyy had a 4% approval rating.
It is hardly surprising Zelenskyy lost his cool. Part of the reason he has a
57% confidence rating in the latest poll (13% above Trump’s own current
standing) is because he has led his country through years of war with his heart
vividly on his sleeve. Having been subjected to eight years of Russian
aggression, followed by an entirely unprovoked full-on invasion which has
killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, and then to be told on the
world stage that: “You should have never started it”, would be too much for
most people."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
