As the Ukraine war enters its fourth year, The United Nations (UN) Security Council approved a U.S.-backed competing resolution Monday that refrains from blaming Russia for starting the Ukraine war and calls to end the conflict. A Ukrainian resolution to end the conflict that blamed Russia for the war was originally approved by the General Assembly but opposed by 17 nations including the U.S., Russia, China, and Israel. The competing U.S.-backed resolution was then amended and sent to the Security Council, where it was approved 10-0. Five European countries abstained from voting.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both stopped by the White House this week to meet with Trump about resolving the war.
The U.S. also struck a minerals agreement with Ukraine this week, which allocates half of the revenue from future monetization of Ukraine’s natural resources to the U.S. in exchange for U.S. support of the Ukrainian economy.
Voices on the left were quick to criticize President Trump for the UN resolution and mineral agreement, whereas voices on the right were divided on the effectiveness and implications of them.
A writer for The Economist (Lean Left bias) said, “Those portraying Mr Trump as a master strategist have one last problem. It is not even clear that Mr Trump believes he is walking in the footsteps of Nixon and Kissinger. He often seems impatient with geopolitics, and indeed with the notion that foreigners have history and core beliefs of their own. Instead, he seems to see ideology as an irritating obstacle to cutting business deals…Admirers can call that ruthless if they must. Kissingerian cunning it is not.”
Jim Geraghty (Lean Right bias) argued for admitting Ukraine into the EU in the National Review Opinion (Right bias), “For the European Union, admitting Ukraine means it gets a new economic tie to a consumer market for 40 million people… and while the EU is not a military alliance, admitting Ukraine means a closer tie with a country with a battle-hardened, nearly million-man army that has spent the past three years killing lots of Russians...If another Iron Curtain is descending across Europe, I want as many people as possible on the free side of it.”
The Intercept (Left bias) published an opinion stating, “Trump’s demand for ‘payback’ from Ukraine… presents U.S. foreign policy in its most naked form. As a result of the West’s refusal to seriously consider diplomacy, Ukraine is left with impossible choices: fight a losing war without U.S. support, or submit to economic vassalage under the very powers that prolonged its suffering.”
A Fox News Opinion (Right bias) writer said, “Trump has taken an unwinnable war, found a way to end it, and bring peace, prosperity and security to everyone…it helps rebuild Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure… A win for Ukraine. It gives the U.S. an opening to a better relationship with Russia with an aim to driving a wedge in the anti-American Sino-Russian alliance. A win for the U.S…. It gives Russia an off-ramp to a difficult war and holds open the possibility of improved relations with the U.S…. A win for Russia.”
