You know who Dmitry Peskov is, don’t you? He’s the Kremlin press secretary, official mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin. The guy who spouts all the bullshit propaganda emanating from the top of the Moscow hierarchy.

And it’s getting more and more difficult to distinguish between his words and the ominous rumblings spewing forth daily from the Washington White House . . . especially as they pertain to Ukraine.

For the past week, the entire world has been scrambling to understand exactly what went wrong at the disastrous February 28th meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the U.S. tag-team of Brutus and Cassius — better known as Donald Trump and JD Vance.

And after a week of processing, the general consensus is that it was a set-up . . . an ambush . . . an evil plot to deliver the final death blow to Zelensky and his besieged country. He had arrived as an equal — the elected head of his nation — and left looking like a whipped puppy. And that is unforgivable.

Why did it happen? Clearly, not simply because he chose to wear his military garb rather than a suit and tie; but because of these two, who now will decide the fate of Ukraine — not to save what is left of the country that Putin has spent three years demolishing, but to give Russia the victory it demands.

And they don’t even try to disguise their intentions. Following the “Shootout at the D.C. Corral,” Trump posted on his so-called Truth Social website that “He [Zelensky] disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”

He later added that Zelensky had “overplayed his hand” and was “looking to go on and fight, fight, fight. We’re not looking for somebody that’s going to sign up a strong power and then not make peace because they feel emboldened. We’re not looking to go into a 10-year war and play games. We want peace.” [Rebecca Shabad and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, NBC News, February 28, 2025.]

And on March 3rd, in the Kremlin’s first public statement on the subject, Zelensky was accused of having demonstrated “a total lack of diplomatic ability.” In the words of the inestimable Dmitry Peskov:

“What happened on Friday in the White House showed how difficult it will be to move towards a resolution in Ukraine.”

But not because of Trump’s and Vance’s behavior. Oh, no! According to Peskov — and thus, according to Putin — Ukrainian authorities and President Zelensky “do not want peace. They want the war to continue.” [Steve Rosenberg, BBC, March 4, 2025.]

Two different languages . . . exactly the same meaning.

The Kremlin is now portraying the situation as an indication that the U.S. is in line with Moscow’s settlement demands; the American non-profit Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says no . . . this is Moscow taking advantage of the melee and spinning it to their advantage. [Kateryna Stepanenko, ISW Press, March 3, 2025.]

Either one may be correct; or the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. In any case, when the dust settles, Russia will have won . . . Ukraine will have lost . . . and Donald Trump will once again have been played for a fool by Vladimir Putin.

In the final analysis, it’s S.S.D.D. — Same Shit Different Day.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/7/25