Post #5128

Zelensky Risks To upend Months of Wooing Trump 🔠🅰️🔠🔠1️⃣ Zelensky is making a pitch to Donald Trump in terms the American president can understand: If Trump wants to cement his legacy as a peacemaker and improve his chances of winning the midterm elections, he should seize this moment to end the war in Ukraine, already the deadliest Europe has seen in generations. “I think there is no greater victory for Trump than to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Zelensky told me yesterday, in his office in Kyiv. “For his legacy, it’s No. 1.” It’s also, Zelensky said, a path to success for Republicans in November. “The most advantageous situation for Trump is to do this before the midterms,” Zelensky said of the chance to end the war. “Yes, he wants there to be less deaths. But if you and I are talking like adults, it’s just a victory for him, a political one.” By this point, Zelensky knows well what motivates Trump. He is also, however, a realist when it comes to the odds that Trump actually forces the Russians to compromise. Throughout the hour we spent together in his office, Zelensky exhibited the quality that has been core to his character for years, even decades—his stubborn, sometimes-petulant habit of resisting outside pressure. If you tell Zelensky he has to do something, “he’s probably going to do the opposite,” said one of his longtime advisers who, like others, spoke with me on the condition of anonymity. “It’s always been like that.” Some members of Zelensky’s inner circle are growing anxious that his window to cut a deal is closing, and that Ukraine will suffer through years of continued fighting if an end to the war isn’t negotiated this spring. #zelensky#putin#elections#ukraine 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸