MeganC...
And I guess Russian feelings are more important than the international agreements and treaties the Russians signed saying they'd respect Ukrainian borders?
I have no love of Russia, and particularly Putin. But the fact is the USA and other NATO nations violated the agreement made with Russia in the 90s by gobbling up former USSR nations and former satellite nations into NATO, right up to the Russian border. We made an agreement we would not do that. We did. Russia felt threatened with what we did.
You can sit here and say we would never become offensive with the NATO forces, but that is not how Russia sees it.
Trump has a noble mindset, and the correct one. Rather than attempting to bleed Russia of every swinging d***, Trump sees the potential threat of this war gone horribly wrong, and he wants to end this conflict. I agree with him 100%. Waging a proxy war with the largest nuclear power in the world is not smart. Plus, Russia has been severely depleted of men and materials. It is time to end this.
And if Putin were honest, he wants to find a way out that it does not result in his removal. I happen to believe if those men on the front do not get their huge bonuses(by Russian standards) that were promised to them, Putin will be forced out of office. They will be in the streets.
And the very last thing I trust are the French. They are to be trusted less than Zelensky. If I am Trump, I would tell Macron and Starmes to keep their distance, or perhaps the USA withdraws from NATO for real. And I don't think lands occupied by Russia are Zelensky's to negotiate away to France, Germany or others. But I do think Trump may get Putin to give up certain lands that go back to Ukraine with the USA getting mineral rights, leaving some of those eastern territories in the hands of the Russians to do the same. Crimea is permanently gone, Obama saw to that with his spineless stance to Russia.
And if I am Trump, I would not meet Zelensky in the White House. Before presenting that munchkin to the Press, the documents better be signed, and have the signing somewhere remote. How about the grounds where Custer and his men were slaughtered by Indians? Because most assuredly, without the USA, Zelensky ends up like Custer! The message to Zelensky and most of Europe will not be missed.