On January 20th of this year, after three years of witnessing Ukraine’s decimation by Vladimir Putin’s war machine, Donald Trump marched into the White House promising to end the war within 24 hours. He was the only one who believed it.

In the ensuing ten months, he has been proven wrong time and time again, because his promise was based on a delusional, narcissistic belief that he could manipulate, cajole, and bully Putin the way he has always done in his business and personal dealings with less savvy adversaries.

Now it appears that — having failed as the self-proclaimed “Peace President” — he has decided instead to bully the victim, Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he is blaming for having let the whole thing drag on interminably as though he had asked to be invaded. And in so doing, Trump has succeeded in placing, not only Ukraine, but the entirety of the European continent in Putin’s future line of sight.

The months of meetings among the leaders of multiple countries, jetting around the globe at a moment’s notice; of the world getting its hopes up again and again; of delays and broken promises; of revised, hastily patched-together proposals . . . all of it has been much ado about nothing.

Because the simple truth is that Vladimir Putin is shrewder, more experienced, more patient, and more diabolical than all of the leaders of all of Ukraine’s allies combined. And because he has never, from day one, had any intention of ending the war on any terms but his own . . . which he has finally made crystal clear this week.

When news broke of the existence of Trump’s secretly-created 28-point “peace proposal,” all hell broke loose in Ukraine and throughout Europe at the paper’s audacious granting of virtually everything Putin has been demanding from the beginning of the war. Calling it “Putin’s wish list,” Ukraine’s EU allies quickly got together in Geneva to make revisions, and included the Ukrainian president in their discussions — something that Donald Trump had not had the decency to do.

But one person was remarkably silent: Vladimir Putin. For several days, we heard from the Kremlin only that they were aware of the proposal . . . until yesterday, when Putin confirmed that a U.S. delegation was expected to arrive in Moscow early next week for discussions of the new, 19-point working paper.

And then he launched into a regurgitation of everything he’s been demanding for nearly four years. While on a visit to Kyrgyzstan, he said at a press conference that it would be “pointless” to sign any documents with Ukraine’s current leadership, as he still considers President Zelensky’s presidency to be illegitimate. The fact that Zelensky is acting in accordance with his country’s constitutional mandate is of no relevance to Putin.

He then reiterated the very demands that have been at the core of the difficulties from the beginning. He insisted that Ukraine’s troops withdraw from all territory claimed by Russia, and ruled out any possibility of a ceasefire prior to such withdrawal, saying:

“If Ukraine’s troops leave the territory occupied, then military action will stop. If they won’t leave, then we will achieve that by armed force.” [Patrick Reevell and David Brennan, ABC News, November 27, 2025.]

He further demanded international recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea, the Donbas region, and parts of eastern and southern Ukraine (presumably Kherson and Zaporizhzhia), saying that his country was “ready in principle [to] fight to the last Ukrainian.” [Id.]

Then — confirming the prevailing worldwide opinion that Trump and his “negotiators” are willing to give Putin the entire candy store in order to put this war to rest — he added:

“Overall, we see that the American side is taking into account our position, which was discussed before Anchorage and after Alaska. In some areas, we definitely need to sit down and seriously discuss specific issues.” [Id.]

When asked about the leaked recording of a reported phone call between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, Putin adopted his friend Donald Trump’s favorite tactic, offering this gem:

“This may be some kind of fake news. Maybe they really did eavesdrop. Actually, this is a criminal offense; eavesdropping is illegal in our country. It’s not about us. It’s about the battle of opinions between the collective West and the U.S. over what needs to be done to end the hostilities.” [Id.]

I highlighted that last quote because I actually burst out laughing when I read it. Between the “fake news” comment and the attempt to have us believe that eavesdropping is illegal in Russia, I simply couldn’t restrain myself.

But this is no laughing matter. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had “welcomed” the initial 28-point draft heavily favoring his country’s position, said on Tuesday about the revised proposal:

“Some forces want to jeopardize efforts by Donald Trump and to change the peace plan. If the ‘spirit’ of Anchorage will be wiped out from this plan, then it’s going to be a whole other story.” [Dan De Luce, Courtney Kube and Abigail Williams, NBC News, November 25, 2025.]

*. *. *

Meanwhile, as Ukraine crumbles, the world holds its collective breath, and Trump enjoys the Thanksgiving weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his team of amateur diplomats prepare to jet off to Moscow for the sixth time to . . . well, we don’t really know what they hope to accomplish, do we?

In light of Putin’s continuing recalcitrance, it seems like a total waste of time, effort, and jet fuel. Because nothing is going to happen until Ukraine has no alternative but to acknowledge that it has been well and truly screwed.

And Vladimir Putin — and his eager American trade partner — will have won the day.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/28/25