Trump has decided to negotiate Ukraine's future with Putin, without consulting European leaders and going over Zelensky’s head. This is seen by Macron, Scholz and company as an affront and a real humiliation.
Trump is said to have begun talks with the Kremlin, accepting the loss of Ukraine's territory and its non-membership to NATO. And he couldn't care less what the Ukrainians think, even though they are the ones most affected.
But that's not what upsets European leaders. What shocks them is that they haven’t been invited to the table. What shocks them is that Trump has disregarded them and that their interests could be completely excluded from the negotiations. Yes, sometimes the kingpin has to tone down the pretensions of his henchmen!
For all that, European leaders – and Macron in particular, who is one of the most warmongering of all – are not giving up their share of the cake. Today, they got together to offer their services to the Americans: they say they are ready to send French and British troops to Ukraine to monitor the implementation of a possible peace agreement.
Trump, Putin, Macron, Scholz... they're all in this together: they're all out to make money through the plundering of Ukraine. They're eyeing the country’s fertile land and precious metals. They're also eyeing the billions to be made from reconstructing the country.
For three years, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been wounded, mutilated or killed. A whole generation of young people, mobilized or driven into exile, was sacrificed. Eastern and southern Ukraine was ravaged, with towns and villages turned into ghost towns. The destruction of buildings, bridges, roads and other infrastructure has set the country back years. Their leaders have thrown Russians and Ukrainians into a fratricidal hatred.
Why all this? So that the great world powers that have been vying for influence over Ukraine would end up dividing up the country together! So that they can come to an agreement they could have signed at the very start of the war!
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, we've been told that there is a good side and a bad side, a democratic camp and a dictatorial camp, and that we must close ranks behind the leaders of the free world to defend a small country and its right to self-determination. But the so-called democrats in America and Europe are no better than the dictator Putin! When it comes to doing business, they never hesitate to spill blood!
After many others, the Ukrainians are experiencing the bitterness of what Anatole France denounced at the end of the First World War: “You think you're dying for your country, but you're dying for the industrialists!”. In this case, the Ukrainians fought for the interests of their oligarchs, but also and above all for the interests of Western industrialists and financiers.
And it's an understatement to say that it was in the interests of the United States to keep the war going! Their trusts have enriched themselves through the supply of weapons and means of communication. They tested their military equipment without a single fatality. And they weakened Russia by imposing a series of economic sanctions.
Better still, with these sanctions they have crushed their European competitors. Crushed the capitalists of Germany, whose economy, turned towards the East, was deprived of Russian oil and gas. Today, Trump can boast of cheaper energy than in Europe, and of winning the race for competitiveness hands down.
Basically, the United States is the real winner in this war. Now that the Ukrainian army is on its last legs, they can move on to the next stage. This is how Trump can come across as a negotiator and pacifist.
Without a doubt, Ukrainians and Russians alike yearn for peace. All those who have been mobilized and are bearing the brunt of the fighting, as well as those who have gone into exile, are anxious to see this butchery come to an end.
But since the distribution of the cake will depend on the advance of Russian troops, the guns are still far from silent. And if peace is ever signed, it will only be a truce between two wars, until a new balance of power is established.
Being sacrificed under imperialist domination is the fate of all peoples if we let Trump, Macron and other imperialist leaders speak in our name.
Nathalie Arthaud