WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. President Donald J. Trump created new jitters for Ukraine with reports that he justified Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea by arguing that everyone who lives on the peninsula speaks Russian.
The new revelation was attributed to diplomatic sources who heard Trump’s remarks at the June 8-9 G7 Summit in Canada.
The remarks are merely the latest indications that Trump, in serving as an apologist for Kremlin warmongering, wants to reduce America’s diplomatic, military and financial support for Ukraine. His opinions are, indeed, at odds with U.S. policy backing Kyiv and condemning Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Alexandra Chalupa, an American political strategist of Ukrainian origin who helped sound the alarm bells about Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, believes Trump is an “influence peddler” for Putin. “We are faced with the reality that the president of the United States promotes Putin’s agenda while working against the common interests of the U.S. and our strongest allies,” Chalupa said.
The American online site BuzzFeed, citing two diplomats who did not want to be named, said that during a dinner when foreign affairs were being discussed, Trump told his fellow G7 leaders that Crimea was Russian because all its inhabitants speak Russian.
According to one of BuzzFeed’s sources, he asked them why they supported Ukraine as it “is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
Trump also lobbied ahead of the conference for Russia’s readmission into the G7, calling the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 as “something happened” and implicitly arguing that it was ex-President Barack Obama’s fault and should no longer obstruct improving relations with Russia.
“Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?” Trump asked.
The G7 club of the world’s most advanced economies – America, Germany, the U.K., France, Canada, Japan and Italy — expelled Russia in 2014 for its war against Ukraine.
Trump’s statements have been criticized by members of his own Republican Party as well as opposition Democrat politicians in the U.S. Congress.
His words have also alarmed many in America’s large Ukrainian diaspora community, which has lobbied U.S. politicians for weapons and other support for Kyiv since Russia launched its war.
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which says it represents some 1.5 million Americans of Ukrainian descent, issued a statement: “Until the Russian Federation ceases its actions in Ukraine, which contravene the principles and values on which the G7 operate, Russia must remain suspended from membership into the group of the world’s largest advanced economies.”
Former U.S. ambassador to Poland, Daniel Fried, who between 2005 to 2009 was U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and is now with the Atlantic Council think tank told the Kyiv Post: “The president’s casual invitation is difficult to understand and impossible to defend. It combines those bad American foreign policy traditions of isolationism and cynical, self-styled ‘realism,’ both of which have brought misfortune to America and to the world. Happily, it is not shared by many in his administration and unlikely to be put into practice. But Ukraine should use the time it has bought through the courage of its soldiers and the support of its friends, and continue to deepen its reforms, so that its Revolution of Dignity deepens.” (The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the EuroMaidan Revolution, is the 100-day uprising that drove Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014.)
Ukrainian-Americans are just as divided in their opinion of Trump as other U.S citizens. Many who usually vote for the Republican Party were dismayed by Trump’s pro-Putin declarations during the election campaign. But others believe that Trump has done much for Ukraine.
Jaroslaw Martyniuk has been active in America’s Ukrainian diaspora since arriving as a child in Chicago with his refugee parents who fled Ukraine in the last stages of World War II. He is also a staunch member of the Republican Party and said Trump has been much much tougher on Russia than Obama, who Martyniuk, like Trump, blames for doing too little to oppose Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Martyniuk said: “The appearance of Defense Secretary James Mattis on the reviewing stand and the presence of American military units during last year’s Independence Day commemoration in Kyiv infuriated Putin. Several months later Trump dispatched Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine and the Pentagon attacked Russian mercenaries in Syria and in March expelled 60 Russian spies.”
Earlier this year Martyniuk’s biography, “Monte Rosa – Memoir of an Accidental Spy,” was published. Throughout his life he has done what he could to help Ukraine whether when it was in the USSR or struggling against Russian aggression. The “accidental spy” part of his professional life involved working closely with US intelligence during Soviet times to run a network gleaning information from Soviet tourists about conditions inside the USSR.
He said Trump’s statements are often “confusing, contradictory, controversial and unreliable and experience tells us that they should not be taken literally.”
But he said the president had added stiff sanctions last April that hit seven oligarchs and 17 members of Putin’s inner circle and he had also criticized the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which transports Russian natural gas directly to Germany, bypassing Ukraine’s gas pipelines and depriving the nation of up to $2 billion annually in transit fees.
Martyniuk believes that Trump meant that, if Russia was present at the G7, it could have confronted Putin in unison.
“Such a message would have carried more weight especially if they could have threatened to match Trump’s April 6 sanctions. (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel could have also backed up such a threat by saying that she will not allow Nord Stream 2 to be completed if Russia doesn’t leave Ukraine alone,” he said.
That’s basically Trump’s argument in a June 13 interview when he said: “I’m not for Russia, I’m for the United States. But as an example, if Vladimir Putin were sitting next to me at a table instead of one of the others, and we were having dinner the other night in Canada, I could say ‘Would you do me a favor? Would you get out of Syria? Would you do me a favor? Would you get out of the Ukraine, get out of Ukraine, you shouldn’t be there?”
Martyniuk does not believe Trump’s recent statements herald a change in support for Ukraine from the U.S. administration. He admitted Trump often talks in “double-speak” but said: “The lesson to take away is that although Trump is reluctant to condemn Russia and criticize Putin openly, the actions his administration have taken over the past year indicate the exact opposite and are a better indicator of his intentions.”
However, Chalupa, the co-chair of the Democratic National Committee Ethnic Council, said Trump’s statements urging softer attitudes toward Moscow are consistent with his track record of support for Putin.
Chalupa was thrown into the public spotlight in 2016 for her role in publicizing that Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Manafort, had previously worked for Yanukovych, the ousted Ukrainian president now in exile in Russia. Manafort became a key target in the investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller into the Kremlin’s interference in the election and Trump’s possible connections to Russia.
Chalupa said: “Donald Trump influence peddles for Vladimir Putin. Throughout his campaign, Trump promoted Putin as a strong leader, despite his well-known history of having journalists, activists, and business leaders censored, imprisoned, or murdered, and his harassment operations against U.S. diplomats serving overseas. His campaign also weakened language supporting Ukraine in the Republican National Committee’s platform, something Manafort’s close associate, (Russian military services) GRU-linked Konstantin Kilimnik, once boasted about influencing.”
She said Trump and his associates made several unsuccessful attempts to lift Russian sanctions put in place by Obama as America’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, Trump during the campaign said Crimeans were happy to be annexed by Russia.
Chalupa said attempts to minimize penalties against Russia have continued after Trump became president: “During the infancy of Trump’s term, when Congress passed strong, bipartisan legislation for additional sanctions against Russia in response to its aggression against American democracy, Trump went to extreme measures to avoid signing the bill, and since doing so, has yet to effectively enforce it.”
Chalupa said that Trump’s latest tactic mimics one of Putin’s justifications for invading the peninsula – that many who reside there speak Russian. She said: “While many Ukrainians speak Russian and Ukrainian, under this flawed reasoning, Mexico would be justified in invading and annexing southern California or other parts of the US where many Americans and green-card holders speak Spanish.”
