{"id":3684,"date":"2025-03-04T12:16:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3684"},"modified":"2025-03-04T12:16:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:16:47","slug":"russia-relishes-trump-zelenskyy-spat-and-accuses-ukraine-and-european-allies-of-warmongering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3684","title":{"rendered":"Russia relishes Trump-Zelenskyy spat and accuses Ukraine and European allies of warmongering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A spat<\/a> between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come as a windfall for the Kremlin, raising Moscow\u2019s hopes for a halt in U.S. assistance to Kyiv even as Russian troops seek to extend their gains in Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday that exploded in acrimony when Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of refusing to negotiate peace and berated him for being ingrateful for U.S. support so far has cast doubts over the future of U.S.-Ukrainian relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kremlin was quick to cast the White House encounter as a proof of Zelenskyy\u2019s reluctance to negotiate an end to the three-year conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened in the White House on Friday certainly showed how difficult it will be to get on the path to a Ukrainian settlement,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. \u201cThe Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace, they want the war to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He claimed that the White House blowup has proven President Vladimir Putin\u2019s statements about Kyiv\u2019s refusal to hold peace talks. Putin, who sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, has declared his openness for peace but demanded that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO and withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Putin was right when he said that despite the openness of the Russian side to the negotiation process, these good intentions run into the unwillingness of the Kyiv regime to maintain such dynamics,\u201d Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. \u201cWe saw this to the full extent in Washington. In this situation, of course, Washington\u2019s efforts and Moscow\u2019s readiness alone will clearly not be enough, a crucial element is missing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denigrating Zelenskyy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peskov said that Putin watched the \u201cunprecedented\u201d White House encounter and \u201ctook what happened into account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a minimum, Zelenskyy has shown an utter lack of diplomatic skills,\u201d Peskov told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the Ukrainian leader\u2019s refusal to recognize any loss of territory, Peskov said it reflected his reluctance to recognize the battlefield situation. \u201cYou have to be blind not to see it,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Russian officials were even less diplomatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dmitry Medvedev, a deputy head of Russia\u2019s Security Council chaired by Putin, relished what he called a \u201cfierce scolding\u201d and a \u201cslap in the face\u201d for Zelenskyy and voiced hope for a quick end to U.S. military aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-Kremlin media and commentators derided Zelenskyy\u2019s attire and his negotiating style and described the meeting as a disaster for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump wiped his feet on Zelenskyy and Ukraine like a doormat,\u201d commented hardline ideologue Alexander Dugin. \u201cZelenskyy was thrown out of the White House like a garbage alley cat,\u201d gloated pro-Kremlin military analyst Igor Korotchenko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s flagship Sunday news show dedicated more than a third of its airtime \u2014 almost an hour \u2014 to the Trump-Zelenskyy clash, with anchor Dmitry Kiselyov mocking Zelenskyy for sporting his usual military-style garb at the White House and saying the Ukrainian leader \u201clooked like a loser\u201d and \u201cmade a scene\u201d in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assailing Europe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kiselyov blasted EU leaders for seeking to prolong the fighting and suggested that a rift between the U.S. and its European allies could potentially erode the influence of NATO and the EU on the global arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now everything is being decided within a new big triangle — Russia-China-the United States. It is in this triangle where a new world order will be developed,\u201d Kiselyov mused, dismissing Sunday\u2019s summit of European allies in London<\/a> as \u201calmost clandestine\u201d and pointless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the London summit, Peskov said it reflected the European reluctance to negotiate peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a group of countries that represent the party of war, which are declaring their readiness to continue to support Ukraine in a sense of supporting the war and ensuring the continuation of the hostilities,\u201d Peskov said. \u201cThere were statements made about the need to urgently provide an increased level of funding for Ukraine \u2013 clearly not for a peace plan but for the continuation of military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that European leaders will face a daunting task of trying to mend a rift between Washington and Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that someone will have to make a considerable effort in terms of dialogue with Washington in order to somehow neutralize the probably unpleasant aftertaste that probably remained in the White House after talking with Zelenskyy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medvedev, a former liberal-leaning Russian president who has become one of the most hawkish Kremlin officials, denounced the London summit as \u201cthe anti-Trump Russophobic coven,\u201d declaring that \u201cthey want to continue the war till the last Ukrainian!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assailed Kyiv\u2019s European allies for defying Trump\u2019s push for peace and described Europe as a birthplace of conflict. \u201cDuring the past 500 years, all tragedies of the world originated in Europe or were linked to European politics,\u201d he said in televised comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lavrov, who has previously warned that Moscow wouldn\u2019t accept peacekeepers from any NATO members in case of a potential peace deal, has dismissed French and British proposals to deploy such a force as \u201cimpudent.\u201d \u201cThis plan for the deployment of \u2018peacekeepers\u2019 to Ukraine is the continuation of efforts to incite the Kyiv regime to wage a war against us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia to press on with military action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peskov emphasized that after Trump\u2019s call with Putin last month and U.S.-Russian talk in Saudi Arabia, Moscow will continue negotiations with Washington on normalizing ties, focusing on efforts to ensure the normal operations of the embassies after years of expulsions of diplomats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, the Russian side will continue the special military operation to achieve the goals that have been set from the start,\u201d Peskov said, using the Kremlin\u2019s term for the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many commentators in Moscow said that Europe wouldn\u2019t be able to provide Ukraine with enough weapons if the U.S. cuts military aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEurope says it will never abandon Ukraine, but it lacks resources to replace America,\u201d Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, observed in an analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn attempt at peaceful settlement has been thwarted,\u201d Lukyanov said. \u201cIt paves the way for the next stage of using force, probably in a tougher way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A spat between U.S. President Donald Trump an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3686,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions\/3686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}