Trump appeasement is selling Ukraine interests down the river - Steve Cardownie

Negotiators in Riyadh yesterday discussed the conditions needed for a Putin-Trump summit​

Yuriy is a former tank commander with the Soviet armed forces and fully understands the potential consequences of Trump’s interference.

He has a good number of friends currently serving in the Ukrainian army and is in regular contact with them – many on the front line – and who he has spoken to since Trump’s clumsy intervention.

I spoke with him yesterday when he told me that the Americans have not learned from history, that appeasing Putin now will not satisfy him in the long run.

He told me that the Russian media is already portraying the talks as a victory,

It looks like the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have died defending their country will become no more than a statistic in the eyes of Donald Trump if we are to believe what we are being told by informed sources.

Concessions are being demanded of Ukraine but none of Russia. From what has been said, Russia will not only absorb the Ukrainian territory it currently holds, such as in Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as Crimea, but will expand its control of additional territory.

Putin’s tactic of dividing European Union countries may produce dividends. Their disparate response to the current situation is music to the ears of those that the walk the corridors of The Kremlin.

Some European leaders are aware of the threat and Poland and Romania have cause to be concerned, as have the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

Putin will be delighted that he has been brought back in from the cold and is now dining at the top table again. That all the atrocities carried out by his armed forces in his name have, to all intents and purposes, been swept under the carpet.

There is no doubt that this war should be brought to an end, but Yuriy was defiant when he said to me, “why should Ukraine pay the price? Why should we give up territory to the invaders of our country? “

For his part, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has quite rightly said that there can be no peace without his country’s participation in the negotiations.

Although there must be a long way to go before any peace process is concluded, his participation in any talks is imperative if they are to have any meaning at all.

But he was frozen out of the talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, much to the delight of the dour Russian browbeater, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister.

Unfortunately, the American electorate has saddled us with Trump, who has already threatened to permanently evict Palestinians from Gaza and turn it into a playground for the rich and now has set his sights on Ukraine.

Keen to reopen Russian markets to American business, he cares not one jot about the threat that Russia poses to the rest of Europe, particularly to those countries that have already suffered under the heels of the boots of Russian oppression.

If Russia emerges from this conflict with a successful land grab, Putin’s ambitions will not be thwarted - but merely put on hold!