The shouts in the Oval Office were the prelude to a scenario that both Ukraine and Europe wanted to avoid at all costs. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has temporarily suspended military aid to kyiv, according to White House sources Bloomberg y Fox News. The interruption of the supply is a measure of punishment against the country at war, but especially against its president, Volodimir Zelenski, since the break is expected to continue until the Ukrainian leader “demonstrates a real intention” to reach an alleged peace agreement that is increasingly resembles a surrender.
The possibility was on the table and, in fact, Trump met on Monday afternoon with members of his cabinet to discuss the measure. Among them, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Defense, Pete Hegseth.
The freezing of military aid is immediately and also affects all those teams that have not yet entered Ukraine, including air transit weapons and ships waiting in transit areas in Poland, as reported Bloomberg. According to Pentagon data, 3,850 million dollars authorized by Congress are still used.
Since Zelenski left the White House on Friday, after being cornered before the cameras by Trump and the vice president, JD Vance, rumors already circulated in Washington about a possible suspension of weapons. The measure affects more than 1,000 million dollars in packages that were in the process of shipping. However, in practice, kyiv military aid was already practically paralyzed.
The facts preceded the words, although they did not make as much noise as Trump’s screams in the oval office. When Zelenski set foot in the White House last Friday, he was already aware that fifty days ago the Pentagon did not announce any new package of weapons for Ukraine and that the new administration had not given signs of wanting to approve new items. The last announcement of weapons was made by the Pentagon on January 9, under the outgoing administration of Joe Biden. This package, valued at about 500 million dollars, included air defense missiles, land equipment and material to support Ukraine in the use of F-16.
Since the Russian invasion began three years ago, the Biden government had announced shipments of military aid every two weeks, or even at shorter intervals. During the last days of his mandate, the former Democratic president accelerated the shipments in an attempt to reinforce kyiv’s position before Trump’s arrival to power. Once the Republican was invested, he began a drought that exerted silent pressure, probably more eloquent than any public statement of the president.
Twist reality
One of the issues that remained in the air after Friday’s episode in the Oval Office is whether the scene that Zelenski lived was orchestrated by Trump and his team. At the end of the dramatic televised encounter, which lasted 50 minutes, the president concluded with a revealing comment: “I think it is good for the Americans who see what happens, that’s why this kept this [la charla previa a la reunión] so much time ”. Be that as it may, the screaming scene with the Ukrainian has served Trump to justify the freezing of aid and strengthen a story in which Zelenski responsible for war holds.
Trump’s first reaction after Friday’s outbreak was to affirm that Zelenski “is not prepared for peace”, while Ukranian said in an interview in Fox News that seeks a stable peace for your country and believes that it is still possible to save the relationship with Washington. Zelenski’s main objective on Friday, when he visited the White House, was to try that Trump promised to give security to Ukraine in exchange for the concession of the exploitation of the rare earths of the country. In fact, the visit of the Ukrainian president to the United States was intended to sign an exploitation agreement in which he had already yielded, although he did not include explicit commitments of Washington.
This Monday morning, after a relatively silent weekend in which Trump played the golf in Mar-a-Lago, the president returned to Zelenski again. “The United States will not tolerate it much longer!” He wrote in Truth Social in reference to the statements of the Ukrainian, who said that the end of the war with Russia is “far away.” Once again, Trump insisted that Zelenski “does not want peace to have the support of the United States and Europe.” This is the most explicit statement in the campaign that, for weeks, Trump and his team have orchestrated to distort the reality of war and present Zelenski as the main responsible for its extension.
As he has done with the assault on the Capitol, Trump seeks to rewrite history to present war as a confrontation between two hostile countries, instead of a conflict derived from Russian invasion to Ukraine. The president has not ceased in his efforts to mold the story in that direction, even presenting himself as a “neutral moderator” between two parts that must reach an agreement.
Wear campaign
Trump has focused all the pressure on the Ukrainian leader, ignoring the active role of Russia and praising his alleged good faith to reach a peace agreement in which kyiv has been excluded. In addition, the alleged moderator, the United States, has already advanced concessions favorable to Moscow, such as not recovering borders prior to the illegal annexation of Crimea, renouncing adhesion to NATO and celebrating elections.
In his alignment with the Kremlin speech about the need for elections in Ukraine, Trump has turned the pressure on Zelenski into a wear strategy. The manipulation of the causes of the war not only seeks to justify the break against his electorate, but also undermine the popularity of the Ukrainian president within his own country.
The martial law has been the main reason why no elections were held in 2024, although there is also fear that a proruso candidate more willing to give in to Moscow’s aspirations to leave victorious. A scenario that would further facilitate the negotiation that Trump has launched, something that he himself has not hidden. Two weeks ago, the president said that Zelenski’s presence was not necessary in negotiations: “It makes it very difficult to close agreements.”
This Monday, in an appearance before the media in the Roosevelt room of the White House, Trump declared in apparent reference to Zelenski: “Someone may not want to make an agreement, and if someone does not want an agreement, that person will not be there for a long time. He is not going to pay attention for a long time, because I think Russia wants an agreement and the Ukrainian people want an agreement; He has already suffered too much. ”
The future of the Rare Earth Agreement
The agreement on the rare earths, which should be signed on Friday at the White House, continues in the air. Before freezing military aid to Ukraine, Trump suggested that this Tuesday would give more details about decisions taken in relation to the country at war during his speech at Congress.
In Monday’s press conference, Trump hinted that the pact on Ukrainian minerals could be resumed. When asked if he gave it for death, he replied: “No, I don’t think so” and reiterated that the United States needs those resources. In fact, the press conference was to announce that the Taiwanese company of Chips, TSMC, will invest 100,000 million dollars to create a chips installation in Arizona.
Source: www.eldiario.es
