President Zelensky To President Trump- No Conditions, If President Putin Accepts Your Request For A Cease Fire, Ukraine Will Accept.
President Zelensky To President Trump- No Conditions, If President Putin Accepts Your Request For A Cease Fire, Ukraine Will Accept.
President Zelensky Can’t Stop Asking For What He Will Not Receive- He Believes In The Pest Principle Of Annoyance- Be A Political Tick. Eventually, Opposition Will Turn. Difference With President Trump- He Has Insect Repellent.
Is The Consequence Of Not Getting What He Wanted Worse Than Publicly Demanding It?
“I asked for an understanding that all this is part of the future security guarantees of Ukraine. At least a sentence about security guarantees for Ukraine to appear in the agreement- and it did appear.” Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine (2019-2024; extended due to imposition of martial law in 2022)
“BILATERAL AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR A RECONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT FUND (Publicly Available Draft)
The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace. Participants will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments, as defined in the Fund Agreement.”
“I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much- we're going to have Europe do that because we're talking about Europe is their next-door neighbor.” Donald Trump, 47th President of the United States (2025-2029)
For the government of Ukraine, for President Zelensky, to believe that a victory has been achieved and a conversion basis has been established due to the inclusion of one sentence in part one of what may well become a multi-part a document not subject to the signature of the president of the United States and the president of Ukraine, the message is one of diminishing expectations rather than success.
The sentence does not say the government of the United States will provide security guarantees- or that the government of Ukraine wants them from the government of the United States. The sentence is not obligatory, and its inclusion highlights the distance between what President Zelensky wants and what President Trump will deliver. Not a good diplomatic or political look- particularly to the government of the Russian Federation.
The signatories for the document are Scott Bessent, United States Secretary of the Treasury, and Andrii Sybiha, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. This is not a head of state level document. President Trump has not indicated that the Presidential Sharpie is awaiting deployment.
For optical context, at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on 14 February 2025 where President Zelensky and J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States, and their respective delegations met for forty-minutes, Minister Sybiha was seated to the very end of the table- furthest away from President Zelensky. Who was to President Zelensky’s right? Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The Trump-Vance Administration has included in the document two “get of the agreement free” cards:
“Subject to applicable United States law, the Government of the United States of America will maintain a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
“This Bilateral Agreement is binding and will be implemented by each Participant according to its domestic procedures.”
By referencing “subject to applicable United States law,” the Trump-Vance Administration crafted the framework for requiring changes to the document or scraping the document in its entirety and by referencing “according to its domestic procedures”, the Trump-Vance Administration has crafted the additional framework for the United States Congress to involve itself- welcomed or intrusively, into the implementation process. Might members of the United States Congress, particularly the United States Senate which has the responsibility to ratify some bilateral agreements, believe the document(s) negotiated by the Trump-Vance Administration are not in the interests of the United States? The Trump-Vance Administration might even work in tandem with the United States Congress to require changes to the document(s) or to scrap the effort. All of this exudes classic Trump transactional dealing making- always leave an out- and an opportunity to blame the other party.
When President Zelensky provides a list to President Trump of what he describes as instances of the government of the Russian Federation violating agreements, those have the opposite impact as intended upon President Trump.
He views the list, and it becomes a challenge- that he, and only he, can be responsible for initiating a cease fire by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the armed forces of Ukraine which President Putin will not violate. As such, the list is not a warning, but an opportunity.
The impressive thirty-eight-day and counting tracking of military equipment and financial support pledged to the armed forces of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine by some of the thirty-two members of the Brussels, Belgium-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and twenty-seven members of the Brussels, Belgium-based European Union (EU) does not have a stimulative impact upon President Trump.
To the contrary, the pledges for him provide additional rationale for United States taxpayers to provide less by showing as evidence with proper stimulation, the governments of other countries will do what he believes is no longer in the interests of United States taxpayers. From his perspective, he will have won, and they will have lost.
President Zelensky should today at The White House offer to President Trump a confirmation that the government of Ukraine will immediately honor without preconditions a cease fire if Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008 and 2012- ), agrees. That prompts the script for President Trump’s conversation with President Putin:
“Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich. I just finished meeting with President Zelensky here at The White House. As you know, President Macron of France was here and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom was here. Here is the deal. It is a good deal to get us started. Once the cease fire is implemented, we can schedule our long overdue visit. Will be good to see you. At 12:01 am on 31 March 2025, I need you to direct the armed forces of the Russian Federation to cease all military operations within the internationally-recognized borders of Ukraine. In turn, President Zelensky will direct the armed forces of Ukraine to cease all military operations within the internationally-recognized borders of Ukraine and within the internationally-recognized territories of the Russian Federation. To be clear, Russians stop killing Ukrainians and Ukrainians stop killing Russians. Everyone stops shooting no matter where they are located.”
“Then our team, your team, and President Zelensky’s team will meet to begin the series of discussions and negotiations to get Russia and Ukraine to a peace. Cannot negotiate peace while the fighting continues. So, both sides stop the fighting to see how far the peace process can get. No preconditions. Just stop the fighting so the peace process can begin. Will benefit both of us.”
