LETTER: Trump abandons Ukraine

President Donald Trump has recently abandoned even the pretense of supporting Ukraine and is openly helping Vladimir Putin wage war. Ukraine appeared to be winning the war — striking oil refineries and other targets deep inside Russia — and in steps Mr. Trump.

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has sabotaged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s efforts to defend his country and aided Putin’s war in numerous ways, including:

■ Blaming Ukraine for being responsible for the war and for being unwilling to compromise to end it, while at the same time claiming, “Russia, quite frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.”

■ Portraying Ukraine as fundamentally corrupt and a drain on American resources.

■ Holding peace discussions with Russian officials or third-party mediators and not giving Ukraine a seat at the table.

■ Blaming Ukraine — not his own war with Iran — for inflation and the rising cost of gas and diesel.

■ Lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports and purchasing $400 billion of Russian diesel, fueling Putin’s war machine.

■ Pausing or slowing down military assistance multiple times and threatening to cut off U.S. intelligence support, which is critical to Ukraine’s survival.

■ Personal attacks on Zelenskyy, labeling him a “dictator” or “the greatest salesman on earth for securing foreign aid,” and calling for his removal.

In Mr. Trump’s bizarre imagination, he sees Zelenskyy as the enemy and Putin as a friend. He is abandoning Ukraine to Putin, whose mission is destruction without compromise.

The stakes in Ukraine are far larger than the fate of one nation. The Ukrainians have been bravely fighting a war over the past four and a half years that will benefit the entire world. Trump is fighting only for himself. If Putin is successful, rest assured that it will not be the Ukrainians alone who pay the price.