A Short History Lesson On Ukraine

In August 1991, Ukraine separated from Russia. This was roughly two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In December 1994, a treaty called the Budapest Memorandum was signed which stated that Ukraine would give away its nuclear missiles (it had the world’s third-largest nuclear stockpile) in exchange for guarantees that the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would respect the independence and sovereignty of its existing borders. Obviously that treaty was not worth the paper it was written on.

In March 2014, Russia annexes Crimea. There was a referendum with the vote in Crimea favoring secession, but the results of that vote have been disputed. The Obama administration and U.S. allies in Europe imposed sanctions on Russia. Also in 2017, Petro Poroshenko is elected President of Ukraine. He stays in office until 2019 when Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected on a promise to end the corruption in the country. President Obama asigns Vice-President Biden as the administration’s front man in Ukraine. On January 23, 2018, Vice-President Biden gives a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations telling the story of getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden fired after the Vice-President threatened to withhold $1 Billion in foreign aid to Ukraine. I guess the corruption was still there even after Zelenskyy was elected. Some of the people involved with Ukraine under the Obama administration were Victoria Nuland and Alexander Vindman. You may recognize the name Alexander Vindman from the first impeachment trial of President Trump.

On Friday, February 28, 2025, there was a meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump and President Zelenskyy. Various other people were in attendance, among them JD Vance and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova.

This is the reaction of the Ukrainian Ambassador as the events of that meeting unfolded:

The purpose of the meeting was to sign an already-agreed-to treaty about mineral rights in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy had already agreed to the treaty but had repeatedly declined opportunities to sign the deal in Kyiv or Munich. He requested the meeting at the White House. Before the meeting, he met with a number of Congressmen from both political parties. Also included in that meeting were U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Deputy Secretary of State under President Obama and National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013 to 2017 and U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2005 to 2008, and Alexander Vindman, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel who was the Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council until he was reassigned on February 7, 2020. You may remember Alexander Vindman from the first impeachment trial of President Trump. This group advised Zelenskyy to ask for a White House meeting with the intention of causing President Trump to lose his temper in order generate sympathy for the Ukrainian cause and President Zelenskyy. The idea was to force President Trump to put American troops in Ukraine and continue the war.  This group is a representation of what is referred to as ‘the deep state.’ They all have connections and investments that profit from the corruption and the continuing war in Ukraine.

Why would anyone want to continue the war? Well, as usual, follow the money. According to CBS News in September 2023, some of the things we are funding in Ukraine include seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers, salaries of Ukraine’s first responders (57,000 of them), divers clearing unexploded ammunition from the rivers–to make them safe again for swimming and fishing. We are subsidizing small businesses-paying salaries and taxes. We are essentially supporting the country.

Corruption is rampant in Ukraine, and we have no accountability as to how the money we are sending is being spent. If the war continues and our spending continues, the people who are getting kickbacks from the spending will continue to thrive as the citizens of Ukraine suffer. I have read over the weekend that Zelenskyy has stated that he is now willing to sign the treaty. If that is true, this will be the fourth time he has said that. Let’s hope this time he means it.

What Is Zelensky Fighting For?

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House on Friday. It did not go well for him. First of all, in my opinion, showing up at the White House to meet the President in gym clothes is disrespectful. There are restaurants who wouldn’t let Zelensky in dressed like that! Second of all, evidently the agreement had been worked out beforehand, as is the custom with these events. Instead of simply signing the previously worked out agreement, President Zelensky decided he wanted some things changed. He made his request publicly instead of in private, as is the custom. The first rule of holes is to stop digging; President Zelensky chose to ignore that rule. The look on his Ambassador’s face tells the whole story. She at least understood what was happening.

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the meeting.

The article reports:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised President Donald Trump for giving “a masterclass on how to stand up for America” after kicking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the White House after he made several “disrespectful” comments.

As Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton previously reported, Zelensky’s comments were made “in front of the media ahead of planned private talks and the expected signing of the much-discussed minerals deal.”

After Zelensky was kicked out of the White House, the “White House confirmed” that Zelensky had not signed the minerals deal and Trump issued a statement in a post on Truth Social stating that he had “determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved.”

I have a feeling that the gravy trail with kickbacks that has been going to Ukraine for the past few years is about to end.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted the following headline:

BlackRock Will Partner With Ukraine To Help Attract Investors, Rebuild Country, Zelenskyy Says

The article reports:

The Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Wednesday that he had met with CEO Larry Fink of investment firm BlackRock, and that the two had agreed to coordinate their efforts to invest in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Zelenskyy and Fink agreed to “focus in the near term” on efforts to attract investors for “the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy,” according to a statement by Zelenskyy’s office. The two parties previously met in September to discuss the terms under which BlackRock might offer the Ukrainian government pro bono investment advice, according to Kyiv.

On December 28, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about Blackrock and its future involvement in Ukraine.

The Conservative Treehouse reports:

BlackRock, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries) is a massive publicly traded multinational investment firm with over $8.68 trillion in assets under management [December 31, 2020 financial statement] in more than 100 countries across the globe.  To say that Blackrock is invested in globalism, climate change and leftist politics, would be a severe understatement {See Here}.  Larry Fink is the CEO and people like Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s attorney of record, are on the board.

The Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, the guy who tells the $8.7 trillion investment firm BlackRock where to put their money, is Tom Donilon; President Obama’s former National Security Advisor (before Susan Rice), and a key advisor to Joe Biden throughout his career in politics; who was also recently put in charge of U.S-China policy by the State Dept. {link}

The article at The Conservative Treehouse concludes:

We have written about the previous conflicts {Go Deep Here} and {Go Deep Here}. So, now we have the Biden administration positioning U.S. taxpayer funds going into Ukraine.  That DC money will now blend with Blackrock rebuilding money and come out of the laundry operation to provide financial benefits to Blackrock, Zelenskyy and the Biden family syndicate.

Go figure.

There is a reason many politicians come to Washington as middle-class Americans and leave as millionaires. We are about to see that principle illustrated.