Ukraine has suffered repeated Russian atrocities in more than three years of the barbaric full-scale war waged against it by Russia. But the latest horrific ballistic missile attack on the northeastern border town of Sumy last Saturday, which killed and injured scores of civilians, including children, may prove to be a defining moment.
This gruesome “Guernica-like” tragedy has shocked much of the world and shaken many from their slumber, which was caused by war fatigue, disinformation, or simply a lack of understanding of the carnage the Russians are continuing to wreak in Ukraine and the heroic, unflagging struggle of its defenders.
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The Russian leader’s self-proclaimed friend and apologist – I’ll end the war in 24 hours – President Donald Trump, felt compelled to call what occurred in Sumy “horrible.” Yet, after conceding this, he immediately tried to downplay its significance by suggesting that it may have been an unintentional “mistake” on the part of the perpetrators.
By contrast to the rambling and evasive initial comments made by the US president, Volodymyr Zelensky was shown on Sunday on the CBS 60-Minutes program delivering a candid and coherent assessment of where things stand and directly challenging the willful disinformation and implicitly pro-Russian, as opposed to pro-Ukrainian, narratives being generated by the Trump administration.
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With no JD Vance at his side to come to his rescue, as was the case during the notorious meeting in the White House on Feb. 28 in which they jointly attacked Zelensky, Trump once again sounded like an egocentric windbag. Zelensky, on the other hand, reclaimed his role as a masterful, credible communicator and war leader who politely but firmly set the record straight.
You would have to be deaf and blind not to see that Moscow is making a mockery of Trump’s supposed peace efforts.
The Ukrainian president, among other things, invited Trump to come to Ukraine and see for himself what barbaric things his friends in the Kremlin are doing to his country before opting to make a deal with the Russians. In doing so, he called Vance’s bluff, who during the encounter in the White House claimed that Kyiv was organizing “propaganda visits” for foreign guests to the sites of Russian atrocities, such as in Bucha and Irpin.
The Russian missile strike on Sumy was preceded a few days earlier by similar deadly strikes on Krivyi Rih and Kharkiv. And since then, there have been more Russian attacks targeting Sumy, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, and other Ukrainian cities.
You would have to be deaf and blind in Washington not to see that Moscow is making a mockery of Trump’s supposed peace efforts, even if they are tailored to appease the Russians at the expense of the Ukrainians and the Europeans.
Yet within 24 hours Trump further discredited himself and his sycophantic team in this regard.
On Monday, he returned to his shameful, if customary, moral equivocation by equating Zelensky with Putin, as being jointly to blame for Russia’s war against Ukraine and being responsible for “millions of deaths.”
He also ridiculed Zelensky for asking for support from the democratic world.
“When you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
The US president was venting his anger at Zelensky, who in the past he had openly called a dictator, for standing firm and presenting Ukraine’s position confidently and clearly to the American public and the whole world. But he also attacked CBS in a threatening tone for airing the interview and giving Zelensky a platform. In doing so, Trump proved once again that he has no respect for freedom of the press or anyone who stands in his way at home or abroad.
This, and the many preceding offensive statements and extortionist tactics used by the US president against Ukraine, including pressure on the country to cede control over its mineral resources, have probably crossed any lines of decency and undermined claims of friendship and continuing support.
Ukraine undoubtedly needs US support, but Trump for some reason wants to insist on humiliating terms while demonstratively appeasing Russia further.
None of this has escaped the attention of the rest of the world. Europe is finally beginning to adjust to the worrying challenges posed by Trump’s destructive tactics. A “coalition of the willing” is crystallizing to help Ukraine achieve a just peace with deeds, not just words. This coalition is likely to be strengthened next month when Friedrich Merz becomes the next German chancellor.
And what about the fence-sitters and the anti-Western states – from India, Turkey, Brazil and Saudi Arabia to China and Iran? Will they be satisfied with an arrogant, tariff-obsessed Trump, who is in cahoots with Putin, getting away with everything? Hardly.
In short, the Sumy atrocity gave Zelensky another opportunity to state Ukraine’s case not only to the US public, but to the world at large. And it once again exposed the shameful collusion of Trump with his war criminal counterpart in the Kremlin and his disregard for everything but his own ego, including the values and institutions of the country he was elected to “make great,” not wreck.
Those who have not yet done so will draw their own conclusions, as more and more Americans are apparently doing.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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