When there are millions of lives — indeed, the very existence of an entire nation — at stake, then threatening to take your toys and go home is not a solution to the problem.

Nor is a big kid holding a smaller kid at the top of the seesaw, suddenly letting him drop to the ground with a thud, only to bring him back up to hang in the air again, going to solve anything.

But Donald Trump’s desperate attempts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine — thus earning himself bragging rights and perhaps a Nobel Peace Prize — are looking more and more like a seesaw tactic every day. Consider:

April 22nd: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio backs out of attending peace talks in London aimed at finding a solution to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as evidence of Trump’s displeasure at the failure of Russia and Ukraine to submit to his peace plan.

April 23rd: Trump berates Ukrainian President Zelensky, accusing him of derailing negotiations when a peace deal was allegedly “very close.” He says Zelensky’s rejection of Russia’s takeover of Crimea is “very harmful” to the attempts to negotiation a peace treaty, specifically charging that “It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s [sic] that makes it so difficult to settle this War.” [Astha Rajvanshi, NBC News, April 23, 2025.]

April 24th (Ukraine time): An overnight missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv kills at least eight people and injures more than 80 others, including children. Additional attacks were reported in the city of Kharkiv, where at least two people were injured. [Jaroslav Lukiv and Jon Donnison, BBC News, April 24, 2025.]

April 24th (U.S. Eastern time): Donald Trump issues what he considers to be a strong criticism of Vladimir Putin, writing on his social media platform Truth Social:

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets [sic] get the Peace Deal DONE!” [Aamer Madhani and Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press, April 24, 2025.]

Wow! He’s “not happy”! It’s “not necessary . . . bad timing”! That’s telling him, all right. It’s really going to make old Vlad “STOP,” isn’t it?

I’m not sure about the number of soldiers Trump claims are dying each week . . . he regularly tends to pull statistics out of thin air . . . but I note there’s no mention at all of the number of civilians being killed and injured. I suppose that’s because he actually believes Putin’s claims that civilians aren’t being targeted.

And Trump’s idea of a fair peace deal? That would be Ukraine’s giving up a sizable piece — I believe the estimate is around 20% — of its sovereign territory to an invader that has no legal right to it. When asked by the press today (still April 24th) during an Oval Office meeting with Norway’s Prime Minister, what concessions Putin would be expected to make, Trump responded:

“ . . . stopping taking the whole country, pretty big concession.” [Id.]

Spoken like a true fascist.

I wonder what the Prime Minister was thinking at that moment.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/24/25