Europe and Ukraine versus the United States

What a state the western world is in. The gathering of European leaders and diplomats in Kyiv to show their support for Ukraine on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion is clearly intended to send a signal to Donald Trump that he is a not-to-be-trusted leader who has screwed up what was always a tight and long-lasting alliance and friendship between America and Europe. But the most bizarre aspect of this dramatic breakdown in the Atlantic partnership is that Europe has sided with the former satellite nation of the Soviet Union against the country that is supposed to be the Great Protector of European nations. The war in Ukraine which helped to unify Europe and the US in the joint effort to stand up to Vladimir Putin is now the reason for an historic breach in the Western alliance. The difference it makes between one president, Joe Biden, and his successor, Donald Trump, has been so startling that no one in Europe has quite grasped the immensity of this change. The winner, of course, is Putin who has now pretty well achieved at least three of his main objectives in life: a significant slice of Ukraine, total division within the Nato alliance, and the effective promise by Trump that Ukraine will never become a member of the western alliance. Not bad for three years of waging war. Now he is expected to get even more: possibly a pull-back of Nato troops from eastern Europe, a lifting of many of the sanctions against Russia and, of course, reinstatement as a leader on the world stage with no one daring to consider arresting him on the international war crimes warrant if he were to land in the US or Europe. Putin rules!