DONALD TRUMP, ENOUGH WITH THE LIES! UKRAINE IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS VENTURE, AND THE RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE IS NOT A BARGAINING CHIP
Donald Trump, it appears that you have completely lost touch with reality. When a political leader replaces facts with fiction, confuses causes with consequences, and substitutes international law with personal business interests, this is no longer merely a mistake. It is a danger to the entire world.
Ukrainians have a fitting saying for this: shifting the blame from a sick head onto a healthy one. That is precisely what you are trying to do by blaming Ukraine for what is happening in global energy markets.
You talk about diesel shortages, rising prices, and farmers’ difficulties, yet you remain silent about the key issue: the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, which has heightened threats to global oil supplies, and the responsibility of your own policies for deepening that crisis. You cannot create a problem and then appoint someone who had nothing to do with causing it as the culprit.
Your criticism of Ukraine for striking russian oil refineries is even more absurd. You express concern about fuel for farmers, ranchers, and the global economy, but do you care about Ukrainian farmers, who are also suffering from diesel prices affected by your policies, while their farms are being destroyed by russian missiles? Do you care about Ukrainian children forced to hide from bombs at night? About cities, energy facilities, and civilian infrastructure systematically attacked by russia?
Why do russian missiles that kill Ukrainians not provoke the same categorical condemnation from you as Ukrainian strikes against legitimate military targets and facilities that sustain the aggressor’s war machine?
You demand that the victim of aggression impose restrictions on itself, yet you show no comparable determination toward the aggressor. That is not peacemaking. It is a dangerous distortion of reality.
Mr. Trump, international law is not your commercial contract!
The second issue is your apparent disregard for international law.
In Resolution ES-11/1 of March 2, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the russian federation’s aggression against Ukraine and demanded the withdrawal of russian troops. This concerns violations of the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, not a quarrel between two equivalent parties that simply failed to reach an agreement.
There is an aggressor. There is a state that has been attacked. And there is international law that distinguishes their respective responsibilities.
Article 51 of the UN Charter enshrines the inherent right of a state to individual and collective self-defense in the event of an armed attack. Ukraine has the right to defend itself, its citizens, and its territorial integrity. It also has the right to receive assistance from its partners.
This is not a favor from Washington. It is not your personal act of generosity. It is not a loan that Ukraine must repay by surrendering its territory or political sovereignty.
Unlike the russian federation, Ukraine conducts specific military operations within the framework of international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack. But Ukraine’s efforts to weaken the aggressor’s military capabilities cannot simply be halted at your command because someone finds them economically inconvenient.
So before lecturing Ukraine, you should open the UN Charter. And if there is no one around you capable of explaining what it means, the problem is not international law.
Ukraine is not obliged to pay for the right to exist
You have already stated that Ukraine should pay for American assistance. Now you are effectively trying to dictate which targets the Ukrainian president is allowed to strike, while also declaring that Ukraine needs a different president—one capable of reaching an agreement with russia.
On what grounds have you decided that you can tell Ukrainians whom to elect, how to defend their country, and at what price they should accept peace?
The President of Ukraine is accountable to the Ukrainian people, not to your business-minded idea of a profitable deal.
You claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy had many opportunities to end the war. But tell us honestly: on what terms? Should Ukraine, as your remarks seem to suggest, recognize putin’s right to seize other people’s territory? Abandon its right to self-defense? Agree to a frozen conflict that would give the aggressor time to prepare another attack?
Peace built on rewarding the aggressor does not end a war. It prepares the ground for the next one.
And your claim that the war would never have started if you had been president does not change the facts: the full-scale, unprovoked invasion was launched by russia. It was putin who ordered the attack on Ukraine. Shifting responsibility for this onto Ukraine’s leadership means replacing the cause of the crime with its consequences.
When business interests become more important than humanity
It is particularly telling that even the position of your predecessor, Bill Clinton, who has publicly spoken about America’s moral and political obligations toward Ukraine in connection with the Budapest Memorandum, does not appear to compel you to take this issue seriously.
The United States undertook to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and existing borders, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territorial integrity or political independence.
This is the historic responsibility of a great power. It does not disappear when a new president takes office.
You may negotiate trade, investments, oil, and profits. But when you are dealing with a country that pays in blood every day for the right to exist, your familiar logic of the “deal” reveals its moral bankruptcy.
Ukraine is not an asset in your portfolio. Its territories are not commodities. Its people are not bargaining chips in negotiations with putin.
Your rhetoric increasingly echoes that of the kremlin
For years, putin has presented lies as truth, aggression as defense, occupation as historical justice, and Ukraine’s pursuit of freedom as a threat to russia.
Now you claim that the war began because of incompetence, criticize Ukraine for striking russian oil refineries, and suggest replacing the Ukrainian president to reach an agreement with the aggressor.
What is the fundamental difference between this rhetoric and the kremlin’s propaganda narratives if, in both cases, responsibility for the war is being shifted from the party that launched the attack to the country defending itself?
When lies become an instrument of policy and self-interest becomes the only moral compass, the line between pragmatism and complicity in a dangerous game begins to disappear.
We are not claiming that every mistake made by Washington automatically makes the United States an ally of russia. We are making a different point: a policy that pressures Ukraine, restricts its ability to defend itself, and simultaneously leaves the aggressor room to continue the war objectively works in the kremlin’s favor—regardless of what the White House chooses to call it.
Our demands
We are grateful to the American people and to everyone who supports Ukraine.
But we address the U.S. Congress, the American political establishment, the European Union, the United Nations, and the global democratic community.
First. Stop shifting responsibility for russian aggression onto Ukraine. The aggressor must be identified as the aggressor, and its crime must receive the appropriate assessment under international law.
Second. Stop turning military assistance to Ukraine into an instrument of political blackmail and bargaining over its sovereignty. Assistance must strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and achieve a just peace.
Third. Stop demanding unilateral restrictions from Ukraine while allowing russia to continue its war. Any agreements must ensure Ukraine’s genuine security rather than create a pause before another invasion.
Fourth. We call on the U.S. Congress and American institutions to ensure consistency in U.S. foreign policy and prevent one person’s personal sympathies, commercial interests, or political ambitions from undermining America’s international commitments.
Fifth. Peace negotiations must be grounded in the UN Charter, Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, accountability for aggression, and effective security guarantees. They must not be based on the law of the strongest, the dictates of an occupying power, or backroom deals made behind the Ukrainian people’s backs.
Donald Trump!
You can talk as much as you like about your ability to make deals. But some things cannot be bought or sold: freedom, dignity, sovereignty, and a people’s right to live on their own land.
America is great not when its president forces a victim to make concessions to an aggressor, but when it upholds its own principles and refuses to let international law become a scrap of paper discarded in pursuit of a profitable deal.
Ukraine demands respect for international law, fulfillment of commitments, and an end to policies that replace justice with commercial calculations.
Remember this: Ukraine has the right to defend itself. putin has no right to seize what belongs to others. And no U.S. president has a mandate to decide the fate of the Ukrainian people.
Peace is not a business deal. Ukraine is not a bargaining chip. And international law is not your private property.
All-Ukrainian Public Organization UKRAINIAN ALTERNATIVE
All-Ukrainian Public Organization PROSVITA named after Taras Shevchenko
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FORUM
CONGRESS OF THE UKRAINIAN INTELLIGENTSIA
International Public Organization UKRAINE–WORLD
International Public Organization UKRAINE–NATO
ASSOCIATION OF CREATIVE UNIONS OF UKRAINE
International Public Organization UKRAINIAN PEACE FOUNDATION
UKRAINIAN VETERANS TRADE UNION
All-Ukrainian Public Organization K.O.D.
Y. Shcherbak
P. Movchan
M. Zhulynskyi
H. Filipchuk
Y. Shevchenko
L. Suprun
Y. Stepanov
I. Zaiets
S. Dzherzh
S. Dudnyk
M. Holomsha
