Volodymyr Zelensky’s prediction that the end of the war in Ukraine was ‘very, very far away’ was branded ‘evil’ by Donald Trump’s inner circle and enraged the president before he chose to pull military aid to the beleaguered nation.
In response to the remarks, Trump promptly scheduled a meeting on Monday with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to consider a course of action.
Zelensky had spoken after a summit in London on Sunday, with 18 allies joining to offer Ukraine security guarantees and reify their support.
British PM Keir Starmer said a ‘coalition of the willing’ would come together to present a viable peace plan.
‘The Ukrainians didn’t think we were serious. We had to make a demonstration,’ one official told The Wall Street Journal as Trump confirmed he was cutting aid to Ukraine.
The extreme move comes just days after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky in the Oval Office for failing to show gratitude for the $180 billion in US military aid sent to Kyiv since Russia invaded three years ago.
The aid pause – which the Department of Defense confirmed to DailyMail.com Monday night – could leave Ukraine without air defence systems, surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and long-range rocket artillery.
The Ukrainian leader had already flown to Europe, desperately seeking support from NATO allies following a catastrophic Oval Office meeting. The war-torn country could collapse within months without US assistance.
In the leadup to the 2024 election, Trump promised a swift end to the war in Ukraine, even boasting he could end the fighting in one day and questioning whether Zelensky wanted peace.
Trump was apoplectic following both White House fracas and the statement from the Ukraine leader claiming the end of the war with Russia was ‘still very, very far away.’
He also laid into Europe’s effort to fill the void where the U.S. said it would remove aid for Ukraine.
Trump accused the UK-led ‘coalition of the willing’ of being weak for relying on an American backstop for peace – after his administration applauded the UK for pledging to lift its defence spending.
Trump said following the summit: ‘It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S.’
In an interview with Fox News, JD Vance also appeared to target America’s allies in Britain and France as he urged Ukraine to sign the minerals deal.
Vance said giving Americans ‘economic upside in the future of Ukraine’ was a ‘way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years’.
British troops supported both the American-led invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) following the September 11 attacks. The attacks prompted the first and only time NATO invoked Article 5, calling on allies for military support.
With the U.S. increasingly turning away from Europe, the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen said today that Europe was ready to massively boost its defence spending, unveiling a €150 Billion Defense Loan Plan for Pan-European Security and presenting a plan to mobilise €800 billion for European defence.
The EU will propose to give member states more fiscal room for defence investments, as well as 150 billion euros in loans for those investments, and will strive to muster private capital as well, von der Leyen said.
Trump acknowledges that without American assistance, Europe will find it difficult to survive on its own.
He said following the London summit: ‘It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S.’
White House DOGE leader Elon Musk branded Zelensky ‘evil’ for continuing to pursue war after the president made clear he wants to bargain with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘Zelensky wants a forever war, a never-ending graft meat grinder. This is evil,’ Musk wrote on X. ‘Stop sending men to die for nothing. ENOUGH!!’
Earlier Monday night, the State Department said Secretary Marco Rubio insisted a diplomatic end to the war was imperative.
‘We want to get the Russians to a negotiating table. We want to explore whether peace is possible,’ Rubio said.
‘President Trump is the only leader in the world right now who even has a chance at bringing an enduring and lasting end to the war in Ukraine.’
For several reasons, it might constitute a crippling blow to Ukraine’s anti-Russian operations.
In an interview last month, Zelensky said that the United States supplied Ukraine with over one-third of its war equipment.
‘The contribution from the United States to Ukraine’s defensive capability and security is now around 30 percent,’ Zelensky said. ‘You can imagine what would happen to us without this crucial 30 percent.’
Furthermore, as Ukraine enters spring, Russia will use the warmer weather to renew its push to take more territory in the weakened nation, The Telegraph reported.
The war continued to rage overnight, with Russia again striking civilian infrastructure – with a drone hitting a children’s clinic in the Sumy region, and another attack damaging two kindergartens in Odesa, where energy infrastructure was targeted.
Ukrainian military drones destroyed a vital pipeline in the Rostov region and a Russian oil refinery in the Syzran and Samara regions.
The strong-arm move from Trump to ‘pause’ US military supplies to Ukraine leaves Zelensky’s defences facing danger because it will prevent vital arms such as Patriot air defence missiles.
Ukraine was severely hurt by Congressional Republicans withholding aid for several months last year. Families were forced to take refuge in train stations in Kyiv while Russia hit the country’s energy infrastructure.
However, Ukraine has become less dependent on the US, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Michael Kofman told the New York Times, ‘than it was a year ago.’
Dr Kenton White, politics and international relations expert at the University of Reading told MailOnline yesterday, ahead of the shock announcement, that Ukraine was still reliant on America’s scale and efficiency of production.
‘Ukraine would struggle without US support as the US has the greater capacity for the manufacture and supply of weapons, ammunition and all of the supporting military equipment and infrastructure required to prosecute a modern war,’ he said.
‘A US backstop is urgent because Western Europe has been complacent about its own defence, and its ability to produce the military infrastructure necessary for fighting a war.
‘Even within NATO, there is no flexibility for anything other than short-term, low-intensity conflicts. NATO is not ‘war-ready’ at all.’
In the United States, reactions to the news mostly followed party lines, with some Republicans in swing seats voicing opposition.
Without mentioning Trump, Republican Mike Lawler, who won his seat in New York in a district where Kamala Harris defeated him by a slim margin in November, blasted the action.
‘Stopping support for Ukraine would jeopardize the stability of Europe and the free world,’ Lawler said.
‘There are strong opinions on both sides of this issue, and I respect that. However, we must be pragmatic about the bigger picture and protect America’s interests abroad,’ he said on social media.
Don Bacon, who won his seat in Nebraska by less than half a point, also criticised the move but didn’t mention Trump, stating that Russia’s supporters were not pausing aid.
‘There is an invader and a victim, there is a democracy and a dictatorship, there is a country who wants to be part of the West and one who hates the West. We should be unambiguously for the good side,’ he said.
New York Democrat Dan Goldman said that Trump was attempting ‘extortion’ on Zelensky.
‘Basically, he wants Ukraine to cave. That’s the only thing that I can tell,’ he told CNN Monday.
Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, represented much of the caucus in backing Trump: ‘If Zelensky wants to continue fighting an endless war, let him do it himself. The U.S. will no longer participate in this conflict that has led to the death of thousands. It’s time for peace!’
Even while European nations are debating how to strengthen their support for Ukraine, Trump met with senior advisors on Monday to debate the future of the aid, which led to the order.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly executed the pause.
Over $1 billion in arms and ammunition will be hindered, as well as hundreds of millions in support, leaving Ukraine to negotiate with private contractors, the New York Times reported.
The Biden administration provided Kyiv with more than $66.5 billion in military aid and weapons since the war started.
It had left unspent roughly $3.85 billion in congressionally approved funding to dispatch more weapons to Ukraine from existing U.S. stockpiles – a totality that had not been impacted by the foreign aid freeze that Trump put in place when he first took office.
Although President Biden stopped deliveries of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel amid humanitarian concerns in Gaza, Trump’s move against Ukraine essentially serves as a final ultimatum to Zelensky.
Either the Ukrainian leader concedes to Trump’s demands or faces devastating losses on the battlefield.
A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine and wants Zelensky ‘committed’ to that goal.
The official added that the U.S. was ‘pausing and reviewing’ its aid to ‘ensure that it is contributing to a solution.’ The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.
A second official told Fox News that ‘this is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause’.
All of the US’ NATO brethren have vowed to boost assistance to Ukraine since the disaster meeting, though they are nowhere near as heavily armed as America.
During a news conference on Monday, Trump alluded to the possibility that Zelenksy’s tenure as Ukrainian president would be short-lived if he persisted in making demands before a peace agreement was reached.
‘It should not be that hard a deal to make,’ Trump told reporters at the White House.
‘It could be made very fast. Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long.’
In response to a post on X claiming that ‘Zelensky knows if the war ends, his power ends’ and branding him a ‘dictator’, Musk said: ‘True. As distasteful as it is, Zelensky should be offered some kind of amnesty in a neutral country in exchange for a peaceful transition back to democracy in Ukraine.’
This echoes a statement by Trump, who also called Zelensky a ‘dictator’ for not holding elections in Ukraine, where Martial Law has been declared since the beginning of Russia’s attack in 2022.
On Monday, Trump was asked what Zelensky needed to do to resume talks with Washington.
‘Well, I just think you should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin,’ he said, before repeating a falsehood about levels of American support.
He added: ‘We’ve given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us.’
Trump has been pushing for a quick deal to end the war in Ukraine ever since he returned to office in January.
His administration has held discussions with Kyiv on a rare earth minerals agreement that would permit Washington to recoup some of its expenses.
The disruptive ending of Zelensky’s meeting at the White House on Friday with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance has flung all prospective support to Ukraine into question after the Ukrainian president was asked to leave the White House after the meeting.
Following a weekend of media backlash over his handling of Zelensky, Trump reaffirmed his stance on Ukraine.
‘The only President who gave none of Ukraine’s land to Putin’s Russia is President Donald J. Trump,’ the president wrote on Truth Social. ‘Remember that when the weak and ineffective Democrats criticize, and the Fake News gladly puts out anything they say!’
Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz warned in an interview on FOX News Channel’s America’s Newsroom Monday morning that the days of unlimited support from America to Ukraine were over.
‘The American people’s patience is not unlimited, their wallets are not unlimited and our stockpiles and munitions are not unlimited,’ he said. ‘The time to talk is now.’
Zelensky, according to Waltz, did not show that he was prepared to cooperate with Russia and the United States to reach a peace agreement to stop the conflict.
‘Success looks like President Zelensky sitting down and talking the terms of peace…what became so evident to us in that session is he’s not ready to talk peace at all but here’s the problem: Time is not on his side,’ he said.
Waltz said it was ‘really confounding’ that Zelensky blew up the meeting and lost an opportunity to work with the American people for the future of his country.
‘I think that President Zelensky truly did his country a real disservice by not having a positive outcome on Friday and we’ll see where things are going forward,’ he concluded.
During the Oval Office discussion, Zelensky became irritated when Vance discussed how crucial it is to permit President Trump to negotiate with Russia.
‘What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?’ he asked, after listing all of the ways that Putin had broken prior agreements with Ukraine.
‘I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President,’ Vance replied, before accusing Zelensky of being rude to President Trump by attempting to express his opposition to a peace deal in front of the American media.
After the controversial Oval Office meeting, Trump told Zelensky to leave, cancelling the scheduled lunch, and a meeting to sign a mineral deal agreement followed by a press conference to celebrate.
‘I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President,’ Vance replied, before accusing Zelensky of being discourteous to President Trump by attempting to express his opposition to a peace deal in front of the American media.
Trump said the Ukrainian president did not seem to be interested in reaching a peace agreement and chastised Zelensky for demeaning the United States while in the White House.
‘He can come back when he is ready for Peace,’ Trump wrote on social media.
After the catastrophic meeting with Trump, Zelensky made an emergency trip to London where he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European leaders who emphasized their support for Ukraine.
‘The U.K. is prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air, together with others,’ Starmer said. ‘Europe must do the heavy lifting, but to support peace in our continent and to succeed, this effort must have strong U.S. backing.’
But NATO members seemed to be divided following the meeting, while Trump accused the UK-led ‘coalition of the willing’ of being weak for relying on an American backstop for peace.
French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a 30-day end to the fighting – but without any security guarantees for Kyiv.
Britain and other allies gave the plan the cold shoulder, as the UK supports the Ukrainian situation which is that any end to the war must be secured by an agreement which Russia will be too afraid to break.
European leaders were hoping a common policy on Ukraine would materialise following Sunday’s meeting, with reports of the French diplomatic effort emerging.
None of the leaders who attended the meeting on Sunday offered their support for the plan. However, no one voiced opposition to it either, out of respect for Macron.
Concerns remain among allies over the number of troops countries can deliver as part of a post-settlement stabilisation force as Trump rejects using the US as a ‘backstop’ to prevent Russia from striking again.
Trump said following the summit: ‘It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US.’
He added in what appeared to be an attack on what he appeared to perceive as a weakness of European leaders: ‘Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?’
Putin’s lapdog appears to be preventing Ukraine from receiving weaponry to help his best friend win the war.
If Trump truly wants peace above all else, why does he feel the necessity to put a ‘mineral resources’ price on it? That’s not looking for peace, it’s trying to screw someone over.
Why should the US keep footing the bill for something they don’t want if Zelensky and the EU want war to continue and the US wants peace?
And let’s face it, Zelensky does want a continuance of the war, he said it himself, ‘The end of the war is very, very far away.’ You wouldn’t say that if you had any interest in negotiating.
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.
I’m amazed at how many idiots are supporting this war—or any war. What’s the matter with this world?
There seems to be enough of money for war, but not for its people, which is wrong, thus the UK shouldn’t have been involved and that has to end now.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 