Ukraine has had years to enter into an agreement with Russia, claims the US President.
You should never have started it. You could have made a deal, said Donald Trump to Zelensky in Florida on Tuesday.
Trump's rewriting of history is likely aimed at putting pressure on Ukraine and Zelensky, notes Fredrik Wesslau, former deputy chief of the EU mission in Ukraine and now at the Centre for East European Studies.
This is a way to get the Ukrainians to agree to far-reaching concessions, he says.
Wesslau points, among other things, to the US proposal to receive half of all revenues from Ukraine's rare earth metals – as payment for American weapons and ammunition.
Russian narrative
At the same time, it is clear that Trump has been heavily influenced by Russian propaganda, says Wesslau. The criticism of Zelensky, as well as Trump's calls for new elections in Ukraine and questioning of Zelensky's legitimacy, is an echo of Russia's narrative about the war.
On Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Zelensky is "a dictator who does not hold elections".
This latest statement is a clear sign that this is a very deliberate strategy from Trump's side: to try to weaken and undermine Zelensky and Ukraine, says Wesslau.
It is clear that Trump, but also the entire Maga movement, is very influenced by Russian disinformation and accepts Russian propaganda as truth. Russia has somehow managed to create a certain image of Europe, Ukraine, and the world among Maga supporters.
But how did it come to this? Fredrik Wesslau explains it with an "ideological consensus" between Russia and the US, where Trump and Vladimir Putin share a nationalist value base where democracy, international cooperation, and "liberal values" are outcasts.
It is becoming more and more clear that the US wants to withdraw from Europe and reduce its engagement in NATO, he says.
Trump sees Ukraine as a European problem that the US should not have to deal with. There is nothing to win for the US. Except for the rare earth metals.
Attack again?
In order to be able to withdraw, the US is apparently willing to make far-reaching concessions to Russia without getting anything in return, notes Wesslau, who thinks we should be "seriously worried".
They are paving the way for a very bad peace for Ukraine. And it's not just about Ukraine – it's about the entire European security order.
Russia may agree to a ceasefire, he says. The question is how long it will last.
If there are no robust security guarantees for Ukraine, such as NATO membership, Russia will use the ceasefire to rearm and attack again in a few years.
