Biden demands to help Ukraine. Vitaliy Portnykov's column

In this way, Biden made it clear to the audience that if Russia wins the war against Ukraine and establishes control over Ukrainian territories, Moscow will continue its geopolitical offensive in Europe. Recently, the US president has been making efforts to reach a compromise with Republican congressmen that would provide for unblocking aid to Ukraine and Israel in exchange for concessions on changes to US migration laws. 

However, President Biden's efforts are being hampered by his possible opponent in the 2024 presidential election, former US President Donald Trump. He has already called on Republicans not to agree to any compromises with Democrats formally until Democrats agree to all Republican proposals. 

However, in reality, the Democrats have already made all the necessary concessions, and this is recognized by the leaders of the Republican minority in the US Senate. So it's not that Republicans expect any concessions from Democrats, but rather that President Biden, from the point of view of his opponents, must fail in his confrontation with Russia and Vladimir Putin so that Donald Trump, if he wins the 2024 election, will have a free hand to negotiate with the aggressive Russian dictator on terms that will satisfy both Putin and Trump. 

To emerge as the savior of the situation, Trump would undoubtedly strive to exert every conceivable effort to ensure that Ukraine is left with no opportunity to dissent from the terms formulated by the US and Russian presidents. This would be done without taking into consideration the perspectives of the Ukrainian leadership and society.

This is a perilous moment, and it should not be overlooked that Trump's supporters, both in the United States and in Europe, are attempting to create the impression that the real issue does not involve the former American president's desire to actively contribute to Ukraine's defeat in its confrontation with Russia.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, owing his career to Donald Trump's support, harbors concerns that diverging from the former US president's directives could jeopardize both his position as speaker and the prospects for his ongoing political career as a congressman. Consequently, Johnson has already expressed alignment with Trump's stance on migration policy, indicating his intention to follow the proposals put forth by the most likely candidate for the US Republican Party's presidential nomination.

This implies that Johnson may opt not to bring the package of agreements on changes in migration legislation and assistance to Ukraine and Israel to a vote in the House of Representatives, even if such a package receives successful voting in the US Senate. Trump's supporters in the House of Representatives are already issuing threats to the speaker, suggesting that they will raise the issue of his resignation if he puts a package to a vote that does not align with Trump's preferences.

In Europe, there are voices expressing hope that Donald Trump's triumph would pave the way for the return of their political careers. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for the idea of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union has had consequential impacts on both the country and the European project, creating opportunities for Russia's aggressive actions, surprisingly defended Trump in his column in a British tabloid.

The former British prime minister, who is more popular in Ukraine than in the civilized world, made yet another ridiculous statement that he believes the outgoing American president, if he returns to office, will help Ukraine and even increase aid if he does not reach an agreement with the Russian president. Thus, if Trump wins, Ukraine will have every opportunity to win the war with Russia. 

However, Johnson does not explain to the readers of the outlet how Russia can compromise its interests in such a situation, when it sees that Ukraine does not have the necessary resources to prepare for new offensive operations in late 2024 or early 2025, and why Putin would not take advantage of this difficult situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the state as a whole. He also does not explain why Trump should not negotiate with Putin in a way that suits the Russian president and explain his agreements as being in the national interest of the United States and as preventing a major war between two nuclear superpowers. 

However, the very fact that in a situation where Donald Trump is actually blocking aid to Ukraine, and Joe Biden is trying to do everything possible, even sacrificing his own political principles, to help our country, former politicians like Boris Johnson are creating an absolutely fantastic vision of the real consequences of Trump's victory in the US presidential election, This alone shows that more and more people are preparing for such a victory and are ready to sacrifice even their own political reputation, which Johnson has quite seriously tied to his support for Ukraine, in order to find a new political role in a world where Trump-type populism will triumph.

When two Johnsons try to convince us that white is black, it certainly raises serious concerns about the prospects for the civilized world's support for Ukraine in the coming difficult years of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Source

About the author. Vitaliy Portnykov, journalist, winner of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.