“I like Putin and he likes me” – these exact words were spoken by U.S. President Donald D. Trump on September 21, at a meeting with voters in Ohio. This meeting was not the first time for such a remark. Such remarks have been heard from Mr. Trump since his 2016 election campaign. They explain his behavior toward Vladimir Putin and Russia during the past 20 years, even when he was just a businessman trying to build his Trump Tower in Moscow. A deeper analysis of Mr. Trump’s state of mind is probably not necessary. His own sister has said that he thinks only of himself and his personal affairs, and is guided by nothing else.
For ordinary Americans, this is both a manifestation, as well as an explanation, of why Mr. Trump stands in solidarity with dictators and assassins. For Ukrainians, these types of remarks also hurt, or should hurt, given that Mr. Trump manifests such affinity towards Mr. Putin, Ukraine’s worst enemy. Frankly, Ukrainians who have at least once heard or seen Mr. Trump’s speech in which such words were uttered, yet continue to support him, are either “useful idiots” as referred to during the Soviet period, or maybe something far worse. They can be friends neither of Ukraine, nor of the Ukrainian people.
At the most basic level, an ordinary person cannot accept the concept of “liking” (and expecting to be liked reciprocally) a person who has killed several hundred of his own citizens in order to create a pretext for ordering a Chechen massacre in Chechnya; a person who repeatedly gives orders to carry out murders against his opponents both in Russia and on foreign soil; a person whose army invaded and occupied the sovereign lands of his neighbors; and one who murdered 298 innocent people in midair.
Yet, “I like Putin, and he likes me.”
Messrs. Trump and Putin are kindred spirits with a toxic attraction.
In 2016, Mr. Trump proudly said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Even now, he boasts about his imaginary successes, without any regret that 200,000 Americans have died as a result of these so-called “successes” that stem from the pandemic. These lives were lost because of his careless policies. To him, these 200,000 lives were simply collateral damage as he calculated the importance of his own election victory.
For Ukrainians, this must be all the more appalling. Throughout the history of Ukraine, of Ukrainian-Russian relations, from the times of Andrey Bogoliubsky and Kyivan Rus’, and even more so, up to and after the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the Kozak state, there have always been tsars and commissars, whether in St. Petersburg or Moscow, who were exceptionally cruel to our people. Consider these examples: Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, Catherine II, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Putin’s name is engraved indelibly in our history as one of Ukraine’s most vicious enemies. And, this murderer is not done, having changed Russia’s Constitution to make sure he is in power for life. Yet, this heinous enemy is liked by America’s President Trump, who flatters himself with a reciprocal affinity.
In our own glorious and, nevertheless, too often tragic history, we are proud of the large number of our own heroes who gave their lives for their people. This history of heroism has strengthened us. This heroism has enabled us to survive some of history’s most difficult political experiences, and more than once we overcame the strenuous efforts of our enemies to wipe us off the face of the earth. We met these challenges and succeeded because we are a heroic people willing to die for a noble cause and we are strengthened by our spirituality. Our enemies took away our land, our language, our bread, but they could not take away our strength of spirit, and they could not take away our will to ensure our national existence. In the end, we won, and we will continue to triumph over all challenges because of the strength of our will, fortified by the heroism of our people. Our undaunted spirit is far stronger than the sabers, rifles, cannons, tanks, missiles and hatred of those who wish us to be forever dead.
Unfortunately, throughout the same history, we have not lacked traitors. Even when considering motives, let’s be clear – a traitor is a traitor, whether the betrayal is for a certain benefit or advantage, for personal enrichment or from willful ignorance, or purposeful self-delusion. “I benefited financially with Trump,” a wealthy American of Ukrainian descent who supports Mr. Trump told me. Just like some of our Kozaks in the 18th century sold out to Tsar Peter I and betrayed Hetman Ivan Mazepa at the Battle of Poltava. Whether it be personal aggrandizement or simply out of naivety, our current Trumpshevyks will be judged by history.
Make no mistake: to support Mr. Trump is to support Mr. Putin. Future generations will condemn them because today the choice is so clear that it has become a national mandate. Yet these Trumpshevyks continue to support a man who freely declares that he likes his friend, the odious Mr. Putin, one of the worst enemies in the history of our Ukrainian people, of our Ukrainian nation. Proclaiming, even often and loudly, “I am a patriot and love Ukraine” is not enough. This is exactly how many throughout our history have attempted to exonerate themselves for their treachery. Yet, despite their protestations, history has forever marked them as traitors. And now, a similar fate awaits many.
Askold S. Lozynskyj is an attorney at law based in New York City who served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress in 1998-2008.