”If we attend to what Vance and Trump said yesterday, we can work our way to the unreason of American policy, and to the chaos that will follow. JD Vance opened hostilities against Volodymr Zelens'kyi with a claim about negotiations with Russia, treating them as a formula that will magically end the war. Zelens'kyi had said, calmly and correctly, that negotiations with Russia have been tried before and have not worked.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #vance #jdvance #zelensky

”The Russians have betrayed every truce and every ceasefire since their first invasion in 2014. And that first invasion of course violated a number of treaties between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the basic principles of international law.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#ukraine #russia

”Zelens'kyi ran for president in 2019 as the peace candidate, promising to negotiate with Putin to end what was then a war that had been ongoing for five years. Russia did not respond to these overtures, except with contempt, and then with the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #ukraine #putin #zelensky #zelenskyy

”The Russians keep committing war crimes every day. Yesterday Russia was attacking hospitals in Kharkiv.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #ukraine

”After yesterday's confrontation in the Oval Office, Trump made clear just how unstrategic the American approach had been. He claimed that the real problem had been that Zelens'kyi had wanted to speak about Putin. Russia, of course, is the aggressor. It does not make sense to demand that the country under attack cease to defend itself, and to pretend that this in itself will bring peace.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #putin #zelenskyy #zelensky #usa #russia #ukraine

”Had the United States under Trump been interested in peace in Ukraine, American power would have been engaged to deter Russia from continuing the war. There was never any meaningful sign of a willingness to do this… On the contrary, the United States lifted Russia from its international isolation and accepted in advance most Russian demands. But even had that not been the case, the American position would have been illogical.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #usa #russia #ukraine

”In Zelens'kyi's presence, Trump confessed his fundamental sympathy for Putin. In Trump's view, he and Putin "had gone through a lot together." The grievance on display here was so capacious that not everyone could grasp what Trump meant.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #putin

”For Trump, the imagined wound of ego to his friend Putin was the pertinent reality. The real wounds that real Russians have inflicted on real Ukrainians are not.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #putin

”In the White House, Zelens'kyi asked Vance whether he had ever been to Ukraine, which is a reasonable question. … Indeed, one of the most striking moments…was Vance yelling at Zelens'kyi that Zelens'kyi is "wrong." Vance makes judgements on the basis of numbers, without any knowledge of how the battlefield looks or works. He also ignores the human factor, treating war as a math problem in which big numbers always win…”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#vance #jdvance #zelensky #zelenskyy

”Also telling was the way Vance responded to Zelens'kyi's question. … He started with the weird idea that Zelens'kyi was to blame for Vance's failure to visit Ukraine, because Zelens'kyi just took people on "propaganda tours." … He was, after all, a United States Senator, and then the Vice-President of the United States. He could have planned the journey as he liked, and others would have made the arrangements for him.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#jdvance #vance #zelensky #zelenskyy

”The Trump policy to Ukraine, as of yesterday, was something like the following: meet with Russia without Ukraine; concede to every significant Russian demand in advance of any Russian concession and without asking Ukrainians; claim that Russia and Ukraine were jointly responsible for the war; refer to Zelens'kyi as a dictator without condemning Putin; vastly overstate the extend of previous American aid; claim Ukrainian resources as compensation for that aid.”
—Timothy Snyder
#trump #ukraine

”Perhaps sensing the awkwardness of his position, Vance then shifted to yelling at Zelens'kyi that he needed to thank President Trump. … In this setting, the compulsive demand for ceaseless gratitude on demand is not only unreasonable: it shifts into the abuser's need to be portrayed by the victim as the great benefactor.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #vance #jdvance #zelensky #zelenskyy

”The courage of Ukrainians made possible an American and European policy to hold back Russian aggression. That same Zelens'kyi, the man who was brave enough to stay and lead his country when the Russians were approaching the capital and the assassination squads were already there, was yesterday made the subject of a public attempt at humiliation by Americans.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#ukraine #russia #usa #eu #zelensky #zelenskyy #trump #vance #jdvance

”…it is illogical, to say the least, for Americans not to thank Ukrainians, or to treat their courageous president as an object of contempt.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#ukraine #usa #zelensky #zelenskyy #trump #vance #jdvance

”Yesterday Vance and Trump repeated familiar Russian propaganda. One example was Trump's claim that it was the Ukrainians who, by resisting Russia, were risking "World War Three." The truth is exactly the opposite. By abandoning Ukraine, Trump is risking a terrible escalation and, indeed, a world war.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #trump #vance #ukraine #ww3

”The main way that Russia engages the United States is through constant attempts to destabilize American society, for example through unceasing cyberwar. (It is telling that yesterday the news also broke that the United States has lowered its guard against Russian cyber attacks.) Russian television is full of fantasies of the destruction of the United States.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#russia #usa #trump

”…Russian trade was never very important to the United States. Why would one fight trade wars with the prosperous friends in exchange for access to an essentially irrelevant market? The answer might be that the alliance with Russia is preferred for reasons that have nothing to do with American interests.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#trump #usa #russia

”In the White House yesterday, those who wished to be seen as strong tried to intimidate those they regarded as weak. Human courage in defense of freedom was demeaned in the service of a Russian fascist regime. American state power was shifted from the defense of the victim to the support of the aggressor. All of this took place in a climate of unreason, … in favor of a world in which he who attacks is always right.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#usa #trump #vance

”Perhaps Musk, Trump, and Vance will personally feel better amidst American decline, Russian violence, and global chaos. Perhaps they will find it profitable. This is not much consolation for the rest of us.”
—Timothy Snyder, The War Trump Chooses
#musk #trump #vance #jdvance #usa #russia