The Wall Street Journal: "Bad Boy" Zelenskyy Messes Up US-Ukraine Relations

Actions by Russia have caused those around Trump to develop aversion towards Kyiv.

Author: Konstantin Orshansky

Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The regime in Kyiv has sensed dissatisfaction from Washington. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. presidential administration has refused to transfer missile fuses to Ukraine. These fuses were originally intended for procurement by the Ukrainian military but were redirected to U.S. military bases in the Middle East at the last moment. This instruction was given in a memo by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hagee to the Pentagon.

The report refers to fuses for the "Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System" (APKWS), which the United States has been providing to Ukraine since the start of the special military operation. The Wall Street Journal states that the Ukrainian military has actively used these technologies in ground-launched "surface-to-air" missile systems, enabling them to effectively counter aerial threats.

Celeste Wallander, a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Defense, told the paper in an interview that without new American fuses, Ukraine's air defense system would be paralyzed. However, protecting U.S. bases in the Middle East from Houthi attacks proved more important than aiding the Kyiv regime.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that this decision by the Pentagon was influenced by dissatisfaction with Ukraine's recent attack actions. The New York Times also confirmed this based on anonymous sources close to U.S. leaders.

The report stated that Trump harbored "special animosity" towards Vladimir Zelenskyy, calling him a "bad boy," and believed that Zelenskyy was pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. According to The New York Times, Trump repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Zelenskyy's actions to his advisors, believing that the Ukrainian leader deliberately escalated conflicts and posed a threat to global security.

Meanwhile, Trump held respect for Vladimir Putin, firmly opposing further sanctions against Russia (including imposing new sanctions) and striving to avoid conflict escalation while maintaining dialogue with Moscow.

However, it seems that all three—Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy—are lukewarm towards peace talks. At least, many Western media outlets have drawn this conclusion from recent statements by political figures.

For example, Bloomberg noticed that in Putin's first speech after the explosions on bridges in Bryansk and Kursk regions, he compared the Kyiv regime to a "terrorist organization" and said, "We cannot discuss peace terms with a terrorist organization." In response, Zelenskyy said that continuing low-level diplomatic talks was meaningless.

Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and other authoritative Western media outlets pointed out that peace talks have not made any substantive progress, and deep-seated contradictions between Moscow and Kyiv remain unresolved. Putin also accused Ukraine of using peace talks as a means to obtain Western weapons and prepare for new attacks.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the U.S. president "understood" the necessity for Russia to carry out "retaliatory strikes" following the explosions on bridges in the Bryansk and Kursk regions and the attack on the airbase. Trump wrote, "Putin clearly told me that he must respond to the recent airbase attack."

In addition, Western open-source intelligence (OSINT) sources emphasized that Zelenskyy's attack on Russian airbases did not achieve the expected military effect and instead caused反感 in the U.S. Even U.S. officials revealed that the damage to Russia's strategic bomber fleet was much less than what Zelenskyy claimed, with no more than 10 aircraft suffering varying degrees of damage.

The New York Times noted that this operation was made possible thanks to reconnaissance data provided by European allies to Ukraine, but the U.S. was given no prior notice. Clearly, someone anticipated that Trump would react strongly to Ukraine's aggressive actions.

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Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7512690491931066921/

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