I woke up with France 24, English version, blaring on my TV as I turned it on. There was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking before the so-called world’s elite in Davos, calling out European nations for failing to gin up any guts toward Vladimir Putin.
His address followed a meeting with President Trump, during which he said the two nations agreed to security guarantees by the U.S. when and if a peace is reached with Russia.
As for Europe, perhaps Ukraine’s chief financial benefactor in its struggle with Russian invaders, he called out the EU leaders for a lack of “political will” in confronting Putin and for failing to assemble a strong and united European military front, a theme Trump has been emphasizing for 10 years.
He compared the European response to the Ukrainian war to the movie “Groundhog Day,” with EU leaders saying and doing the same things over and over again and lacking the will power to bring Putin to trial for war crimes.
“Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he said. He also asked the EU leaders to give up trying to “change” Donald Trump and instead confront reality.
“President Trump loves who he is, and he says he loves Europe, but he will not listen to this kind of Europe,” Zelenskyy said.
As for the fate of his own country in the face of an ongoing conflict with Russia, Zelenskyy proposed trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S., to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“It will be the first trilateral meeting in the Emirates. It will be tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,” he said in a Q&A after his speech.
That meeting would make for terrific headlines should it happen. Meanwhile, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow today to meet with Putin.
Overall, this is proving to be a week of momentus developments, what with the Greenland “framework” and now a tri-nation meeting in the UAE. Let’s see what happens with both, if they ever come to pass.
