Comment on Ukraine: Trump's distortions are a low point for America

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Comment on Ukraine: Trump's distortions are a low point for America Nikolas Busse • ​​28 million • 2 minutes reading time The fact that an American president is adopting propaganda from the Kremlin is a new low point, even if Trump often talks nonsense. The real dictator is in Moscow, there can be no doubt about that. Despite all the (political) restrictions that martial law has brought to the Ukrainians, their lives are still much freer than in Putin's surveillance state with its sham elections. And the aggressor was and remains Russia. Here too, Trump is distorting the facts in a way that is unworthy of the president of one of the oldest democracies in the world. Agreement on natural resources Trump, who has always had an instrumental relationship with the truth, is probably after something very tangible. As is his habit, he tries to build pressure through public discrediting. In this case, he is demanding an agreement on the extraction of natural resources in Ukraine. Zelensky himself had suggested this, but is now hesitating to sign. You can't blame him. Trump is demanding a lot, but has so far offered Ukraine practically nothing in return, especially no security guarantees. On the contrary, he has already vacated important western Ukrainian positions in the conflict. This makes clear what the main problem with Trump's change of course is for Europe too: he can only end the war quickly if he accommodates Putin and ignores Ukraine. The Europeans should not be involved in this roadmap. No one can force Trump to continue investing in this war, and he may hope to gain strategic advantages vis-à-vis China from a compromise with Russia. But from a European perspective, it does matter how the war is ended, and they are not completely powerless here either, as the British and French considerations on securing a possible ceasefire show. If Trump is the "dealmaker" he thinks he is, it is worth negotiating hard with him.