Right here’s what we all know concerning the battle in Ukraine.
Everyone seems to be mendacity.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona leaned into Stephen Feinberg, President Trump’s choose to be deputy secretary of Protection, and challenged him to defend Donald Trump’s lie.
“Mr. Feinberg, did Russia invade Ukraine?”
Feinberg couldn’t reply the query with a sure.
That was a lie.
Feinberg and everybody in that convention room is aware of Russia invaded Ukraine three years in the past this week.
Mark Kelly answered a lie with propaganda
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, questions Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Protection secretary, throughout Hegseth’s affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Armed Companies Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Inside hours, Kelly put out a video clip on X, previously Twitter, that was its personal small distortion, an artfully edited piece of propaganda that pales compared to Feinberg’s lie, however nonetheless is one.
It made Feinberg seem like a blubbering idiot, and extra to the purpose, made Kelly look much more the strict prosecutor.
What Kelly unnoticed was Feinberg’s explanation — that he couldn’t definitively reply Kelly’s query as a result of it may frustrate President Trump’s talks to finish the Ukraine battle.
“There’s a really tense negotiation occurring now,” Feinberg told Kelly, as reported by The Hill.
“I don’t suppose some one who’s not knowledgeable on this, not concerned in discussions, ought to make statements public that might undermine what the president and the secretary’s intent is.”
That’s greater than mere blubbering.
However it additionally underscores the lies of Donald Trump, who has maneuvered himself to a spot the place he blames Ukraine for the battle, calls its chief a “dictator” and comfortable pedals Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin, the monster, lies to President Trump
Putin is, the truth is, a monster who began a battle that has killed wherever from 110,000 to 500,000 folks and possibly extra. We simply don’t know.
Such is the fog of battle.
Putin’s troopers have summarily murdered Ukrainian civilians, kidnapped Ukrainian kids and leveled complete cities.
The monster additionally lies.
He pretends to be the buddy of the US. He endearingly calls our president “Donald.” This will likely idiot Trump. It ought to idiot nobody.
In the meantime, the leaders of Europe and Canada preformed their very own theater of the absurd this week by winging to Kiev and swearing timeless assist for Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
What nonsense.
Europe lies about its assist for Ukraine
For 3 years, Ukraine has been within the maw of the Russian bear whereas Europe and Canada (and the Biden White Home and GOP-led Congress, for that matter) nattered on about Ukrainian braveness whereas refusing to supply satisfactory materials and monetary assist to defeat the Russians.
The Europeans have spent greater than the People, for certain, however even the Kiel Institute for the World Economic system, the German analysis institute that tracks such funding, notes that the donor nations, and specifically the Europeans, have supplied “low” support for Ukraine.
The institute additionally slams Europeans for placing “small home priorities” forward of a battle that’s central to Europe’s protection.
Germans pay 3 times extra per 12 months for tax subsidies for diesel gas than they do for navy help for Ukraine, the institute’s Christoph Trebesch mentioned.
“When trying on the authorities budgets in most European donor nations, Ukraine help over the past 3 years appears extra like a minor political ‘pet venture’ somewhat than a significant fiscal effort.”
Worse but, the governments of Europe have been dropping their guard for many years, underfunding their protection budgets and leaving it to the US to guard them towards the authoritarian and historic enemies to the east.
Europe hardly even funds its personal protection
So, when Donald Trump bilaterally begins peace negotiations with the Russians, there’s a realpolitik logic to it. If the Europeans are unwilling to defend their very own nations, why ought to the U.S. embody them in peace talks?
After Trump’s election and authoritarian-like bluster about America taking management of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal, the Europeans started to think about their continent with out an American protection umbrella.
Some pulled the alarm and mentioned it’s time to increase protection budgets as excessive as 5% of GDP.
This panic was too much for Benjamin Tallis, one of many heavy hitters in European safety and the director of the Democratic Technique Initiative, a political suppose tank in Berlin.
Opinion: At first I laughed at Trump. Not any longer
“I discover it attention-grabbing and somewhat regretful that some folks have spoken since Trump’s remarks a couple of wake-up name or about plunging Europe into chaos with these calls for five% protection spending,” he informed Deutsche Welle TV.
“If that is what it took to plunge you into chaos, you haven’t been paying consideration for the final three years.”
“… (We) made ourselves significantly dependent upon the US for our safety. There’s nothing incorrect with being good allies, however which means actually paying your means and doing all of your share, and that’s the place Europeans and Canadians have been somewhat delinquent. So, we’ve left ourselves with out the true capabilities to face up for ourselves.”
Then there’s Trump, the most important liar of all of them
In the meantime, Ukraine has became a meatgrinder, tearing up the younger males of the 2 warring states.
“(Casualty) estimates counsel Russia has misplaced over 700,000 killed or injured, whereas Ukraine has misplaced round 400,000, with tens of hundreds lacking,” mentioned Konstantin Sonin, a Russian exile, Putin critic and professor of public coverage on the College Chicago.
“But the entrance traces stay largely static, resembling a battle of attrition paying homage to World Struggle I trench warfare.”
Now, Donald Trump has reframed the global discussion about Ukraine from battle to peace with this remark:
“We’re dropping all these troopers. And so they’re not American troopers, they’re Ukrainian and Russian troopers, however whenever you’re speaking a couple of million-and-a-half, I feel you’ve bought to carry that one to an finish.”
A peace that rewards Russia for its bloody theft and cruelty will solely provoke future wars. So, I’m glad to see Mark Kelly lean exhausting into would-be Trump protection advisers.
But when the US manages to shepherd this mess to an enduring and simply peace, then the most important liar of all of them, Donald Trump, can have landed on the battle’s most cogent fact:
“We’ve bought to cease that battle.”
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. E-mail him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This text initially appeared on Arizona Republic: Ukraine peace deal exposes a hard truth: Everyone is lying | Opinion
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