Zelensky is taking a major risk that his continued across-the-board opposition to the President's courageous attempt to end the war with Russia will provoke Trump to cut off all US aid to Ukraine.
I don't get Zelensky's lust to remain in power. So what if he loses the election? I have to assume that he has siphoned off enough of the aid money that he can live comfortably, if not in luxury, for the rest of his days. It's not like he has to live in a broken Ukraine. He can 'retire' to France or elsewhere in Europe. He can still swan around Europe and be feted as the rebel hero who stood up to Putin AND Trump. And he wouldn't have to do the real work of rebuilding a shattered country.
If needs something to do, I am sure someone in Ukraine will throw him a bone and put him on the Board of Directors of some company helping rebuild Ukraine with lucrative skimming of foreign monies. Maybe Burisma? They like to pay for do-nothing employees.
Yes Burisma would be an ideal golden parachute for Zelensky, given he is the most corrupt dictator in Europe or maybe EU President if Ukraine ever joins the EU. Like all dictators, I think Zelensky enjoys having all the power and he is not willing to give it up willingly so Trump should find volunteers to stage a coup against him if he refuses to hold elections. We have done it before in Ukraine and we can do it again but this time we wouldn't be overthrowing a legitimate democratically elected President like Biden did in 2014.
In what world has any leader called an election in the middle of a devastating war? Like he said, he’d step down right now for peace or NATO. Are you serious?! What f-g propaganda have you been investing?
I agree with Trump that Zelensky is a dictator. However I would add a bit more context to this statement. For example, we in Britain did not hold elections during the height of WW2 because it was just impractical...... but, and it's a big but we had a full coalition government instead so all parties were involved in governing and you could not declare that Churchill was a dictator.
The problem that Zelensky created for himself is his banning of opposition parties. Thank you so much for pointing this out . He literally made himself a dictator by this act alone. No-one supporting his war bothered to point it out. That he banned opposition didn't surprise me, but the way these war supporters kept quiet was what shocked me at the time.
Then by not holding elections, which I presume might mean allowing back the parties he banned, he has made himself a dictator twice over.
And just to finish off my context, we in Britain did have elections as soon as possible. In fact a few months before the war fully ended but just weeks after it ended in Europe .... and Churchill lost. So he wasn't around to sign the final peace. Zelensky should agree to have elections as soon as ..... even if it means someone else signs the peace deal as otherwise, as Putin I think has said, that agreement could one day be considered not binding.
Thank you David for another highly informative article. Just to let you know, the sentence and paragraph starting: "Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing..." contains a double negative which negates your intended meaning:
“Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing including satellite targeting and threaten to cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access without which it would effectively eliminate Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting the war as its drone army would become useless, and Russian forces would begin advancing all along the eastern front, perhaps all the way to the Dnipro River.”
You just need to take out two words – the “without” and “it” either side of the “which” in the following to change:
“…cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access without which it would effectively eliminate…” to just “…cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access which would effectively eliminate…” as shown:
“Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing including satellite targeting, and threaten to cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access, which would effectively eliminate Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting the war as its drone army would become useless, and Russian forces would begin advancing all along the eastern front, perhaps all the way to the Dnipro River.”
- If Zelensky wants to remain in power then - surprisingly - needs to conitnue the war with Russia. otherwise he will be removed from power very very soon (IMO). Complecated stuff. But the US is also in a bind over continueing it support to Ukraine. A matter of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I don't get Zelensky's lust to remain in power. So what if he loses the election? I have to assume that he has siphoned off enough of the aid money that he can live comfortably, if not in luxury, for the rest of his days. It's not like he has to live in a broken Ukraine. He can 'retire' to France or elsewhere in Europe. He can still swan around Europe and be feted as the rebel hero who stood up to Putin AND Trump. And he wouldn't have to do the real work of rebuilding a shattered country.
If needs something to do, I am sure someone in Ukraine will throw him a bone and put him on the Board of Directors of some company helping rebuild Ukraine with lucrative skimming of foreign monies. Maybe Burisma? They like to pay for do-nothing employees.
Yes Burisma would be an ideal golden parachute for Zelensky, given he is the most corrupt dictator in Europe or maybe EU President if Ukraine ever joins the EU. Like all dictators, I think Zelensky enjoys having all the power and he is not willing to give it up willingly so Trump should find volunteers to stage a coup against him if he refuses to hold elections. We have done it before in Ukraine and we can do it again but this time we wouldn't be overthrowing a legitimate democratically elected President like Biden did in 2014.
In what world has any leader called an election in the middle of a devastating war? Like he said, he’d step down right now for peace or NATO. Are you serious?! What f-g propaganda have you been investing?
I agree with Trump that Zelensky is a dictator. However I would add a bit more context to this statement. For example, we in Britain did not hold elections during the height of WW2 because it was just impractical...... but, and it's a big but we had a full coalition government instead so all parties were involved in governing and you could not declare that Churchill was a dictator.
The problem that Zelensky created for himself is his banning of opposition parties. Thank you so much for pointing this out . He literally made himself a dictator by this act alone. No-one supporting his war bothered to point it out. That he banned opposition didn't surprise me, but the way these war supporters kept quiet was what shocked me at the time.
Then by not holding elections, which I presume might mean allowing back the parties he banned, he has made himself a dictator twice over.
And just to finish off my context, we in Britain did have elections as soon as possible. In fact a few months before the war fully ended but just weeks after it ended in Europe .... and Churchill lost. So he wasn't around to sign the final peace. Zelensky should agree to have elections as soon as ..... even if it means someone else signs the peace deal as otherwise, as Putin I think has said, that agreement could one day be considered not binding.
Thank you David for another highly informative article. Just to let you know, the sentence and paragraph starting: "Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing..." contains a double negative which negates your intended meaning:
“Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing including satellite targeting and threaten to cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access without which it would effectively eliminate Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting the war as its drone army would become useless, and Russian forces would begin advancing all along the eastern front, perhaps all the way to the Dnipro River.”
You just need to take out two words – the “without” and “it” either side of the “which” in the following to change:
“…cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access without which it would effectively eliminate…” to just “…cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access which would effectively eliminate…” as shown:
“Alternatively, it could withhold all intelligence sharing including satellite targeting, and threaten to cut off Ukraine’s Starlink access, which would effectively eliminate Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting the war as its drone army would become useless, and Russian forces would begin advancing all along the eastern front, perhaps all the way to the Dnipro River.”
- If Zelensky wants to remain in power then - surprisingly - needs to conitnue the war with Russia. otherwise he will be removed from power very very soon (IMO). Complecated stuff. But the US is also in a bind over continueing it support to Ukraine. A matter of damned if you do, damned if you don't.