Donald and JD Forget to Thank Volodymyr for Degrading Russia Threat
By Tom Kagy | 03 Mar, 2025

Volodymyr Zelensky has done more to protect US troops from a European land war than any US leader.

Last Friday Americans were treated to the surreal spectacle of JD Vance and Donald Trump berating Ukraine's war-hardened leader for being ungrateful and unwilling to surrender unconditionally to Putin's peace terms.

Setting aside the dozens of times Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed deep gratitude to the American people and to its leaders for supporting his nation's self-defense, many Americans were angry and flabbergasted to see our factually-challenged White House duo failing to thank their guest for having degraded Russian military might.

As Putin launched his second invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 US military planners fretted over prospects of sending US troops into a NATO land war with Russia.  No doubt Putin's biggest concern on that day was whom he would install post-blitzkrieg to be his puppet in Kyiv's elegant turquoise and ochre palace.

A comedian by profession, Volodymyr likely had a couple of dark laughs as his special forces exploited blind spots in Russian invasion planning.  With brilliant resourcefulness and steely courage in the face of what the world assumed would be a walkover, the Ukrainians shattered the myth of Russian military might, then stomped it into the ground.

Now, three years after Putin launched his attack (not the other way around, Don), the Russian army isn't looking so formidable.  With barely a quarter of Russia's military assets and a third of its manpower, the Ukrainians have inflicted 783,000 Russian casualties, including at least 172,000 killed and 376,000 severely injured (i.e. not recoverable) as of early January 2025, according to the latest estimate by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Especially awesome has been Ukrainian success in destroying vaunted Russian armor, with over 14,000 kills of main battle tanks (MBTs), infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and armored personnel carriers (APCs).  Essentially half of Russia's armor has been lost to Ukraine.  

And Ukraine's successes haven't been limited to vintage stock like the Korean War-era T-72 tanks.  They destroyed over a third of Putin's main-line T-80s and even some of their state-of-the-art T-90s.  No doubt more T-90s would have died but for Putin's reluctance to leave his long borders with China undefended.  

The Russians are now forced to de-mothball even WW2-era T-55s in an effort to reconstitute armored units, the inadequacy of which is leaving Russian troops, as well as their N. Korean augmentees, unprotected in many of their ground assaults.  Ukrainian success against Russian armor has forever changed the battlefield equations for military planners.  The Ukrainians' clever use of sophisticated drones — which they're now outproducing vis-a-vis the Russians — has also taught militaries around the world, including our own, how to defeat costly armor cheaply.

Overall Ukraine's successes against Putin's invasion force has been a dream scenario that US military planners would never have dared hope for.  And this vivisection of Russia's invasion capability was accomplished without a single GI death.  But Donald is too busy chasing credit for making peace with Putin to even recognize this miraculous evaporation of one of two or three biggest nightmare scenarios for the US military.

Instead Don and JD would rather browbeat a 33rd "thank you" out of Volod, followed by his agreement to surrender for nothing in exchange the strong bargaining position he and his nation have achieved.  No wonder every sensible American watching their bizarro meeting couldn't help cussing out our sad White House duo.

Of course the Ukrainians too are dying.  There have been about 250,000 estimated casualties so far and the war has produced much suffering.  Of course Ukrainians would like to see the war end.  But the blithe assumption underlying Trump's gambit for a quick PR win appears to be that Zelinsky and Ukraine are so desperate to end the war that they should be happy to accept Putin's terms.  

Fortunately for Europe and the entire West, including the US, Zelensky knows that Ukraine is far from being at Putin's — or Trump's — mercy.  To many observers the war has weakened Putin while stimulating Ukraine to build up its asymmetric warfare capabilities to wear down a poorly trained and increasingly demoralized Russian army. 

Zelensky's courage and brilliance as a leader — in sharp contrast to Trump's loud and ineffectual bluster — is apparent, for example, in the bold counter-invasion into Russian territory in early August of 2024.  If the war were to continue for another year or two, Putin is more likely to come to Ukraine's terms than vice versa.  

For his own reasons Trump seems bent on becoming Putin's best hope for retaining control of the 15% of Ukrainian territory Russia has managed to control thus far.  What Trump hopes to gain in exchange for betraying Ukraine and NATO would appear to be a brief PR victory in the minds of those who think the US should retreat behind the protection of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

If Trump and attack dog Vance had any sense, they would have shown good manners (as well as sound negotiating tactics) to offer effusive thanks to Zelensky for cutting Russia down to size, then promised continued military support, rather than haranguing a true leader with their bizarrely distorted view of reality.  The disinformation duo may think they've pushed Zelensky out of the orbit of power.  In reality they're pushing themselves and the US out of traditional roles as leader of the free world.