‘Putin will use this to take Europe’: Outraged Ukrainians slam Trump’s peace talks with Russia
Senior officers, veterans, politicians and ordinary soldiers have lashed out at Donald Trump’s plans to meet Vladimir Putin in peace talks that exclude Ukraine.
Ukrainian rap star Oleksandr Yarmak, who is also head of research and development in the country’s new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Force, told The Independent: “Regardless of the plans of Trump and the murderous Putin, we will defend our country.
“If Russia is not punished for its bloody deeds, this world has no future.”
He spoke after Trump’s announcement that he hoped to open talks with Putin, possibly in Saudi Arabia, next week. His defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has already laid out the parameters for the US which directly reflects the Kremlin’s long-standing position.
Notably he said Ukraine cannot join Nato and that Kyiv must give up on demands that Russia withdraw from all of the territory it has captured in the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine since 2014.
Yarmak, a former front-line drone pilot and commander with many years of service on the battlefield, said in a text: “If the world does not show its maturity, there are still many Ukrainians, including me, who are ready to bring at least a little justice to this world.
“We will not end the struggle until evil is punished! Otherwise, there is no point in living in such a disgusting world!”
His rap songs have become national war chants and blend contemporary wartime experiences with traditional poetry and history.
Ukrainians are drawing parallels with the late 1930s when efforts made to appease Hitler did nothing to prevent the Second World War.
Volodymyr Omelyan, a major in a homeland defence regiment who was badly wounded by a Russian airstrike in eastern Ukraine last year and was the minister for infrastructure under former president Petro Poroshenko, also condemned Trump’s approach.
“His approach to please the beast is wrong and will lead to big problems.”
Referring to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler after meeting him in Munich in 1938 he warned: ”Munich ’38 was just the beginning, not the end. Russia and China will use this situation to take Europe. Only if the UK, France and Germany will take the lead over the continent, we can survive”.
Oleksii Yakovlenko deals with the results of Putin’s invasion every day. Until last year he was the former director of the Kramatorsk Hospital, where the corridors are often slick with the blood of wounded and dying Ukrainian soldiers.
Now commanding a frontline medical unit on the eastern front, he sent a message to The Independent that said “Munich 2.0”.
