SLOBODIAN: Zelenskyy deserved to get kicked out of the White House

It’s hard to understand how Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s behaviour during a visit to the Oval Office Friday can be defended.Some have tried. But as any viewer can see, he became combative, scowled, defiantly crossed his arms and argumentatively spoke over President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. He wanted to talk, not listen.Zelenskyy’s refusal to appreciatively embrace Trump’s peacemaking efforts to end the savagery in the Ukraine/Russia war, was contemptible.There he sat, safe in the Oval Office facing Trump with attitude — while back home, Ukrainians and Russians were getting slaughtered on the frontlines in the breadbasket of the world, now turned into stinking, blood-drenched killing fields.Zelenskyy wasn’t interested in negotiating a ceasefire. Not the first time. He caved to external pressure and rejected peace negotiations nearing a resolution in 2022.Now about 1.5 million fighters on both sides of the conflict are dead. Countless maimed. Tens of thousands of civilian casualties. Refugees dispersed throughout the world. A generation of traumatized children orphaned. Beautiful old buildings bombed to rubble. How much is enough?Zelenskyy got what he deserved, a verbal beat down, then kicked out of the White House without being fed a planned lunch of chicken and crème brulee — and with a warning that more US money hinges on entering negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Finally, someone refused to cater to this media darling, now accustomed to being treated like an unblemished hero. But like Putin, he’s hardly unblemished.Zelenskyy makes insolent money demands during what Vance accurately called “propaganda” tours that land him on magazine covers, but prolong the war.Trump demanded Ukraine share $500 billion of its mineral resources — it has 22 classified as critical by the EU — to compensate taxpayers for billions sent to Ukraine during the three-year war. Trump said it’s payback time and another condition for continued financial support.By Saturday, an agreeable — panicked? — Zelenskyy wrote on social media he’s ready to sign.“We are ready to sign the minerals agreement, and it will be the first step toward security guarantees,” wrote Zelensky. “But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine … and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side.”The worth of the mineral deposits is unclear. A 2023 study by Forbes Ukraine concluded Ukraine’s rare earth minerals could be valued at $15 trillion. Ending the war and mining them would bring Ukraine peace and prosperity.Trump and Vance were harsh. Did they intend to also send a message to globalist warmongers and the military industrial complex itching for war to explode beyond Ukraine igniting a global conflict? You bet!Zelenskyy tried to interrogate Vance. Did he really call Vance a curse word under his breath in Ukrainian as some on social media claimed? Why that grimace, when Trump said “I am respected” so Putin will negotiate?Zelenskyy bristled when Vance stated: “You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who is trying to save your country.”Zelenskyy was a willing election campaign prop at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in former president Joe Biden’s hometown. In a sickening theatrical display, he joined Democrats to autograph munitions to kill Russians.Zelenskyy thanked the US Saturday. Remember when he lectured Americans that they were obliged to send money to Ukraine, not pay for US infrastructure? Last month he defiantly declared: “We do not recognize the debt. It will not be in the final format of the agreement.”“We do not recognize the debt…” Imagine!Yet there he was expecting more US support under rules set by Biden — no need to account for billions despite no progress made beyond a rising body count.An astute leader would know it’s time for both sides to make concessions and seriously enter talks to stop the carnage in Ukraine since Putin invaded.“Your country's in big trouble … you're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out of this OK because of us,” Trump said in reference to Zelensky balking at negotiations.Trump wants an immediate ceasefire “so the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.” He won’t drag the US into a proxy war with Russia, both nuclear-armed superpowers.During a heated exchange, Trump pointed a finger at Zelensky and said: “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three.”.HANNAFORD: Anger is not an emotion, it is a tool.Trump was trashed by those with blinders on regarding Zelensky and haters hungering for Russia’s demise.Billions sent to Ukraine — a cesspool of corruption, human trafficking, and biolabs handling dangerous pathogens — vanished.Trump was attacked for saying the US contributed $350 billion to Ukraine. See, it’s not the ‘official’ figure fed to Americans.In February, Zelenskyy said he received only about $75 million of $177 million approved by Congress.“Time to find out what really happened to the hundreds of billions of dollars sent to Ukraine …,” posted Elon Musk, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut waste and track criminal activity.Of course, ‘inspectors’ in the Biden-run, scandal-plagued US Agency for International Development (USAID) — that siphoned money to start wars and orchestrate regime change — found no evidence of illicit diversion of funds.Evidence counters that. Aid dispersement — supposedly overseen by Zelenskyy — enriched Ukraine’s military leaders. War happy US politicians, Republican and Democrat, are accused of smurfing — criminally laundered millions — into campaigns. Prolonging war stalls uncovering corruption.Yes, Putin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, expanding the war that started in 2014 when Russia took control of Crimea. Conflict in Ukraine’s predominantly Russian Donbas region was rife with atrocities and war crimes committed by both sides.Putin’s a dictator. But Trump was also right to call Zelenskyy a dictator. Hatred of Putin, and the naïve need to pick a hero and a villain, blinds people to Zelenskyy.Like Putin, he rules with a communist fist. He imprisoned journalists, opposition, and clergy. He crushed independent media, shut down Ukrainian Orthodox churches and seized assets. He stripped citizens of rights and freedoms.He refuses to hold an election.Some defend him, arguing Ukraine law deems elections are prohibited during martial law. Who declared and extended martial law without interruption since February 2022? Zelenskyy! .A ceasefire could end martial law and lead to an election. Zelenskyy’s popularity stands at 4%. Ukrainians want to oust this comedian who danced provocatively in fish net stockings and high heels and played piano with his penis before being installed as president.Zelenskyy craftily said he’d resign and “trade” his presidency “to achieve peace” if Ukraine was let into the NATO fold, knowing that’ll provoke the Russian Bear’s wrath. Putin understandably doesn’t want NATO on his doorstep.Vance raised another disturbing point.“Mr. President … Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.”Horrific videos show old men and boys dragged off the street, beaten and kicked by military thugs, then sent into battle without training.The people snatchers, as the New York Times labelled them, grab handicapped and mentally ill who are “thrown into the meat grinder.”Zelensky’s some hero!Are Ukrainian-born Canadians — and refugees who, thank God, found safety here — OK with that?“You can go to hell,” Ukrainian-born Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz, familiar with corruption in Ukraine, told Zelensky after the Trump meeting.Meanwhile, in Canada…Trudeau’s government doled out billions to Ukraine — $12 billion to $20 billion — that we know of. Some was ear-marked for “gender-sensitivity” training in the war-ravaged country. Anyone know where the money went? Anyone care?The tariff trade war aside, no federal leader had the courage to support Trump’s peacemaking efforts. They offered platitudes about Ukraine’s resilience … the Ukrainian people should determine their future … blah, blah.An election looms. Can’t risk Ukrainian votes. Can’t criticize Zelenskyy, who’s dangerously pushing to get Ukraine into NATO.They must be OK with NATO’s Article 5 requiring Canada as a member to send soldiers to war because they didn’t have the guts or wisdom to back Trump’s efforts to stop the war.

SLOBODIAN: Zelenskyy deserved to get kicked out of the White House

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