When Trump met Zelensky

Trump and Zelensky have a history, but many MSM outlets called their latest meeting “awkward”. Trump wants to end the war with Russia expediently, but are he and Zelensky on the same page? Who is actually profiting from war in Ukraine?

30/9/24 “deep dive” by Martin Harris

According Nigerian (!) source This Day:

“Donald Trump met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky at his New York base in Trump Tower yesterday, and said it was time Russia’s war in Ukraine was settled.
The Republican presidential nominee had repeatedly criticised the Ukrainian leader on the US campaign trail, and a meeting between the pair had seemed unlikely until hours before.
As the two men stood side by side, Zelensky said he thought they had a “common view that the war has to be stopped and Putin can’t win”, adding that he would discuss with Trump details of his “victory plan”.
Despite years of differences, Trump insisted he had a very good relationship with Zelensky.
“I also have a very good relationship as you know with President Putin and I think if we win [the election] we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

Afterwards, Trump and Zelensky spoke to Fox News and the former president said he “learned a lot” from the meeting.
“We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal made,” he said. “It should stop and the president (Zelensky) wants it to stop, and I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop and that’s a good combination.”
BBC quoted Zelensky to have said: “Putin killed so many people and of course we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war. He’s on our territory.”

Zelensky invited Trump to visit Ukraine, and Trump replied: “I will”.
The Ukrainian president later posted on his Telegram channel that the pair had a “very meaningful meeting”.
“We have a common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. Ukrainians must win,” he wrote.
Trump, meanwhile, said on his Truth Social account that if he is not elected president, “that war will never end, and will phase into WORLD WAR III”…” Continues: Trump Meets Zelensky, Says it’s Time to End Russia’s War – THISDAYLIVE

But while Trump has stuck to his guns all the way with his assertion that he can end the Russia-Ukraine conflict very quickly, can we be so sure about the Ukraine president? Is he milking the Endless War cash-cow along with the US political elite?

There have been several versions circulating of a claim that Zelensky purchased a $20 million mansion with the location varying depending on the source. The claims appear to be false. Equally false it seems, are claims surrounding the alleged purchase of a Bugatti supercar. Zelensky himself claims that his net worth has declined since the war began.

The Independent says:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly declared details of his income in a bid to reassure allies of Kyiv’s grip on corruption, after military officials were accused of a major embezzlement scheme.

The income of the Ukrainian president declined in 2021 and again in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February, according to his presidential website.

Mr Zelensky’s income fell by 12m Ukrainian hryvnia (£250,000) in 2021 from the previous year as he and his family reported a total income of 10.8m hryvnia (£220,000).

In 2022, the Zelensky family income dropped further to 3.7m hryvnia (£77,000) as he earned less rental income from properties he owns because of the outbreak of the war.

Mr Zelensky disclosed his earnings after Ukraine’s security service uncovered a massive corruption scheme involving arms purchases worth about £32m…Zelensky publishes details of income in anti-corruption drive | The Independent

And yet, Time Magazine says:

Of all the gifts that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled across the world to thank American lawmakers for in-person five days before Christmas, one stood out. It wasn’t the Patriot missile system that he was receiving to counter Russian attacks on civilians or the humanitarian aid for refugees, though he was grateful for both. It was the cold, hard cash.

While much of the world’s attention has focused on military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, a large part of the help the U.S. is giving goes straight to Zelensky’s government as cash support for its operations. “Financial assistance is also critically important,” Zelensky said in his speech to Congress Wednesday night. “Your money is not charity, it’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

Just how much cash is the U.S. “investing” in the Ukrainian government? A spokesperson for the United States Agency for International Development, which is responsible for disbursing the funds, puts the direct-to-budget number at $12 billion so far since the start of the war...continues: Zelensky’s Cash Haul | TIME

So, while Zelensky may not personally profit from the war, his government does. Quite substantially. Since the above article was written, the aid figure has practically doubled! Exactly how it is invested remains a bit murky. One wonders if Zelensky’s “government operations ” include the purchase of mansions and supercars? A few million here or there would hardly make a dent in $23 billion.

How much oversight is there?

Managing fraud risks. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has standard processes to manage risks to its delivery of assistance in countries worldwide. But in countries affected by violent conflict, such as Ukraine, dangerous conditions can limit USAID’s ability to directly oversee its assistance—increasing the risk of fraud or corruption. Despite this, USAID does not comprehensively assess and document relevant fraud risks, including for Ukraine.

Supporting Ukraine’s government. As of May, USAID had obligated $22.9 billion for direct budget support for Ukraine’s government, largely to reimburse the government for eligible expenses, such as salaries for teachers, civil servants, and healthcare workers. USAID has used a layered approach to oversee this funding, with different entities responsible for providing different types of oversight—such as identifying gaps in Ukrainian government processes and conducting financial audits. However, some of these entities’ work has limitations, which affect the level of accountability their oversight provides.

SOURCE: Ukraine Aid is Important, But So is Oversight of This Funding and Assistance | U.S. GAO

Here’s an entity who DOES unquestionably profit from the ongoing war however:

US & European big oil profits top a quarter of a trillion dollars since the invasion of Ukraine | Global Witness

LONDON, 19th February, 2024 – European and US oil and gas majors have made profits of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new analysis by Global Witness marking two years since the conflict began.  

After posting record gains in 2022 off the back of soaring energy prices, the big five fossil fuel companies paid shareholders an unprecedented $111 billion in 2023. In the hottest year ever recorded, this figure is some 158 times what was pledged to vulnerable nations at last year’s COP28 climate summit.

In total, Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies have paid $200 billion to shareholders since the invasion of Ukraine, funnelling cash to investors as more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed and millions of households across Europe struggled to keep the lights on. 

Conflict is at the heart of this profit and cash handout bonanza for the fossil fuel producers. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made already high wholesale gas prices skyrocket, driving historic gains for oil and gas producers. So much so, that 2022 saw US President Biden accuse the industry of “war profiteering” while UN Secretary-General Guterres warned that the companies “have humanity by the throat”.   ..continues at link.

It appears to this author that Biden calling Big Oil “war profiteers”, while accurate, is rather hypocritical considering his sons Burisma association. Which is where things get, well, complicated…

Take this item from 2019:

What Hunter Biden did on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma

KIEV (Reuters) – During his time on the board of one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Hunter Biden, the son of former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, was regarded as a helpful non-executive director with a powerful name, according to people familiar with Biden’s role at the company.

Biden’s role at Burisma Holdings Ltd has come under intense scrutiny following unsupported accusations by U.S. President Donald Trump that Joe Biden improperly tried to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine.

Interviews with more than a dozen people, including executives and former prosecutors in Ukraine, paint a picture of a director who provided advice on legal issues, corporate finance and strategy during a five-year term on the board, which ended in April of this year.

Biden never visited Ukraine for company business during that time, according to three of the people.

They also said that his presence on the board didn’t protect the company from its most serious challenge: a series of criminal investigations launched by Ukrainian authorities against its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources. The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.

Revelations in a whistleblower complaint that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressed the Ukrainians to pursue investigations into Burisma and the role of Hunter Biden have sparked an impeachment inquiry by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Trump faces allegations that he withheld U.S. military assistance for Ukraine to place pressure on Kiev to investigate his potential Democratic rival in next year’s U.S. presidential election…source: KIEV (Reuters)

I’ll let the reader digest that for a while. Like I said. Complicated.

I really wonder if Trump is the only name in this scenario who truly wants this war over?