FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 28, 2025
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky exchanged heated comments during a meeting at the White House. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:
“The loud departure from diplomatic normalcy we witnessed today in the Oval Office will naturally distract most people from the substance of the disagreement. It is not really about whether President Zelensky sufficiently thanked Americans for their support. The argument is more fundamentally a result of the fact that the United States and Ukraine have different interests.
“The United States has an interest in ending a war that threatens escalation with a nuclear rival and which has been costly to American taxpayers—albeit less costly than the $350 billion figure President Trump erroneously repeats. Ukrainian leaders, having suffered so much to protect their sovereignty, understandably want a just peace where they get most of their land back and some sort of ironclad U.S. guarantee that they will be safe from future attack. They have even tried to pull the U.S. into the war as a combatant.
“The Biden administration repeatedly insisted that Ukraine’s maximalist goals for a settlement were consonant with U.S. interests and achievable. The Trump administration is right that this is wrong. Ukraine cannot regain its lost land militarily and must guarantee its own security via painful compromise and plentiful arms, even while outside support remains generous. The last few years plainly show that no one else will fight for the Ukrainians. Recognizing this reality will be painful for Ukrainian leaders. Past U.S. leaders, including Trump himself, bear some blame for giving them false hope.
“None of this is to endorse bullying and berating foreign leaders. That is unpresidential and unnecessary for a power such as ours, which holds most of the cards, as Trump notes. Rather than yell at Zelensky, Trump should simply have noted that the United States has limited interests in Ukraine, and can safely walk away from peace talks or arming Ukraine. If Ukraine wants to fight on its own or with EU support, it can do that.
“We should also be glad that today’s contretemps seems to have collapsed the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal which was likely to result in little benefit to the United States but threatened to tempt President Trump and others into a belief that the U.S. has substantial interests there.”
Read more: Safeguarding U.S. interests in a Ukraine war settlement
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