If Ukraine Deal Wasn't Perilous Before, It Is Now
Ending the bloodshed by putting pressure on both sides and shifting the burden to Europe made some sense. Ambushing the victim and shutting out allies makes the US weaker around the world.
Ambush and shakedown.
Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The spectacle of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly dressing down Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office is a sad chapter in the annals of American diplomacy. It’s only one of a series of perplexing, sometimes shameful episodes in the US president’s handling of Ukraine.
In recent weeks, the US has engaged in a resource shakedown of a beleaguered democracy, while refusing to denounce, or even acknowledge, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s role in instigating the war. Yet if one peers through the smoke created by the America First fireworks, there is a real strategy at work here — one that is coherent, ambitious, and enormously risky all at once.