In the aftermath of the dust-up in the Oval Office between Vlodomyr Zelenskyy, President Trump, and Vice President Vance, I find it stunning that so many, quick to their opinions, can be so blind—and stubbornly so—to the realities of what happened and the opportunities that were refused.
First, Zelenskyy is the leader (for now) of what the World Bank calls a “lower-middle-income country.” It is by no means in any position to claim the mantle of what we would have called “first world” status during the Cold War. Additionally, Zelenskyy is the leader of a country that needs foreign aid—both militarily and financially—to survive in the immediate.
So, his outrageous demeanor in the Oval Office toward President Trump and Vice President Vance—not to mention his backstabbing of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in changing the terms of the Rare Earth Minerals Agreement—is and was completely and absolutely unacceptable. Zelenskyy is not of equal station or stature as the President of the United States. Put bluntly, you don’t come asking for foreign aid and start dictating what you will accept, how the benefactor will feel, and what the donor country will do.
And it wasn’t just Americans, sans the radical Left, who must consistently and inanely take the opposite position of everything Donald Trump says (every House Democrat voted against eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, tips, and overtime). Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky called for an emergency session of the Ukrainian Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against Zelenskyy. It needs to be noted that Dubinsky is currently imprisoned in Ukraine for his alleged Russian influence (Zelenskyy didn’t like what he was saying, so he put him in prison).
In a completely unscientific social media poll (and I don’t put a lot of stock in polling, but when one is substantially lopsided, it’s hard to argue that the sentiment isn’t there), 71.4% of the respondents said they believed Zelenskyy’s actions in the Oval Office diminished the American people’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
And how could we not. Zelenskyy sat defiantly in the Oval Office declaring with a full-throat that he would both not accept a ceasefire and not negotiate peace with Vladimir Putin. Regardless of what you may think about Putin (I am not a fan, by far), if you are unwilling to enter into dialogues with your nation-state adversary, how do you expect to craft an avenue to peace; how do you stop the killing?
Zelenskyy’s attitude on those points alone validates Mr. Trump’s statement that Zelenskyy isn’t “ready for Peace if America is involved.”
But even more arrogantly egregious was Zelenskyy’s pivot away from the Rare Earth Minerals Agreement in his demand for “security guarantees” from the United States. This is where the “drive-by know-nothing” social media opinionators expose their complete lack of critical thinking skills and intellectual comprehension of geopolitical issues involving Ukraine and Russia.
Zelenskyy’s insistence on “security guarantees” from the United States equates to the United States committing to military engagement should Russia violate any agreement to cease hostilities. That would mean a direct US military conflict with Russia—US troops on the ground—and with Russia having China's unwavering alliance and recent assurances on the matter.
Further—and again, this is where the “drive-by know-nothings” fail to think things through, with China (a nuclear power with a 2 million person active-duty roster) both existing adversarially to the United States and in contracted concert with Russia (a nuclear power)—and with both of them seeking to end Western (read: American) hegemony—any US military engagement on Ukraine’s behalf on Ukrainian soil would light the fuse to a global conflict, again validating Mr. Trump’s point that Zelenskyy is playing with World War.
However, the larger demonstration of Zelenskyy’s inability to grasp a concept is his complete ignorance of what the Rare Earth Minerals Agreement would have meant for his country. Thus, my contention that Zelenskyy is not even close to being an adequate leader for the Ukrainian people.
The Rare Earth Minerals Agreement would have achieved two things.
First, it would have immediately affected a cessation of hostilities—and that means the killing would have stopped—because it would have hobbled Putin from advancing, the United States would have established a vested interest and, therefore, an official presence in Ukraine. So, any aggression by Putin against US interests in that country would have been an act of war against the United States directly.
Putin may be ruthless, but he’s not foolish. He understands that the United States and its aligned European powers have identified his military’s vulnerabilities through their actions against the Ukrainian Army, and he recognizes that in the face of a US-led (or even NATO-led) military coalition, he would lose unequivocally.
Just as importantly, the Rare Earth Minerals Agreement would have provided Ukraine with a domestic capability to rebuild, which will likely be a monumental effort.
As of February 2024, the estimated cost for rebuilding Ukraine, assuming the war ends in short order, was pegged at $486 billion over a decade, according to the Rapid Damage & Needs Assessment (RDNA3) released on February 15, 2024, by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the United Nations.
This figure reflects the total reconstruction and recovery needs based on damages incurred from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, through December 31, 2023. Later data, like the RDNA4 from February 25, 2025, bumps the cost to $524 billion through December 31, 2024, suggesting an additional $38 billion in damage over 2024.
As Zelenskyy scurries to the low-watt spotlight being shone on him by some European leaders—leaders who talk a tough game but whose actions in the past prove a more cautious approach to any foreign entanglements without US participation, are we to believe that Europe (the EU) alone will flip the bill for eveyething Ukraine will need to rebuild?
Further, are we to believe that in a post-conflict Ukraine, the government’s penchant for embracing and tolerating corruption will suddenly evaporate to an acceptable level tolerated by the European people, particularly when the Ukrainian government will be spending European tax dollars? My friends, Europeans aren’t as apathetic about the squandering of their tax dollars as American taxpayers.
So, in my eyes, all the handwringing and superficial protestation about President Trump and Vice President Vance’s response to Zelenskyy’s Oval Office behavior, and, quite frankly, his arrogant approach to the American taxpayer in general, is nothing more than a display of kneejerk, emotion-driven, stunted intellect and the “drive-by-know-nothing’s” inability to think an issue through to all logical and realistic conclusions.
It’s one of the burdens that a free people must both contend with and defend to maintain the sanctity of free speech. The knowledgeable must suffer the inanity of the uneducated and uninformed who believe they know the fact because they feel they do.
It’s a cross to bear for sure. But freedom is worth that cost.
Frank Salvato's analysis has been entered into the congressional record through the US House Foreign Relations Committee and recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His writing has been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, and Human Events, as well as syndicated internationally.
Share this post