By the TND Editorial Board
There are moments when the measure of a nation is taken not by what it says in peacetime, but by whom it stands beside when the bombs are falling. This week, the United States failed that test.
On Saturday, October 10, 2026, President Donald Trump said Ukraine should get "a new leader who can make a deal," accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of passing up chances to end the war and blaming him for high diesel prices in America. A day later he went further, insisting that Vladimir Putin wants a settlement and that it is Zelensky who "does not want to make a deal."
The remarks came as Russian strikes continued to kill Ukrainian civilians, and shortly after Washington moved to ease sanctions on Russian diesel, a step Zelensky called "a gift to Putin" that would "not bring peace or any benefit to the civilised world."
Blaming the Victim
Let us be clear about the facts. Ukraine did not invade Russia. Ukraine did not annex Crimea. Ukraine did not launch the full-scale war of February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. To blame Kyiv for the absence of peace is to blame the house on fire for refusing to make terms with the arsonist.
According to reporting by Axios, a U.S. official said Trump cut a deal with Putin after Zelensky ignored requests to stop striking Russian oil refineries, strikes the White House said were contributing to high fuel prices. Yet the global energy crisis has many causes, including the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Placing the blame solely on a country fighting for its survival is not analysis. It is scapegoating.
Who Decides Ukraine's Leader?
No American president has the right to choose Ukraine's head of state. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha answered plainly: Zelensky "has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide." That is democracy. That is precisely the principle the United States claims to defend around the world.
Calling for an elected wartime leader to step aside, while the aggressor's leader is praised as a man of peace, inverts every value America has sworn to uphold: self-determination, sovereignty, and the rule of law over the rule of force.
A Pattern, Not an Accident
This is not the first rupture. From the Oval Office confrontation to public warnings that Ukraine must "make a deal or we're out," the relationship has been marked by pressure on Kyiv rather than Moscow. Each time, the message to the Kremlin is the same: wait, and Washington may deliver what your armies cannot.
What America Owes Its Word
In 1994, under the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine surrendered the world's third largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for assurances of its security, including from the United States. America's credibility with every ally, from Taipei to Tallinn, rests on whether such promises mean anything.
Peace is the goal everyone shares. But a peace imposed by abandoning the victim is not peace. It is a pause before the next invasion, and an invitation to every autocrat watching.
Ukraine Should Thank God
Through all of this, Ukrainians have shown a faith and resilience that humbles the world. They should thank God for the courage that has kept their nation standing, for the allies in Europe and across the globe who have not wavered, and for the millions of ordinary Americans who still believe their country should stand with the defender, not the aggressor.
Leaders come and go. Principles must not. The American people should demand that their government remember which side of history it promised to be on.
This is an opinion piece reflecting the views of the TND Editorial Board. Quotes are drawn from reporting by AP, CBS News, Euronews, Axios and Al Jazeera.
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