I’m starting my week thinking how mad Vladimir Putin has to be these days. His war is just not going well.
Putin thought he could go into Ukraine and just take over. How wrong was he?
The headline in the Washington Post: “Ukraine rejects Moscow’s call to surrender Mariupol.” The war rages on. They are fighting in the streets.
The concern is that since the brave people of Ukraine have not given in, Putin will turn to even worse tactics. Already one-in-four people in Ukraine have been forced to leave their homes. How many more before this is over?
Maureen Dowd’s Sunday column in the New York Times caught my attention: “While Putin Shrinks, Zelensky Soars.” She writes, “Putin was cocksure, dismissing Volodymyr Zelensky as a shrimp, a nothing. But Zelensky has shown the world what true stature is.”
President Zelensky continues to impress me. He has guided his people through something most of us have never seen in our lifetimes.
President Biden will go to Poland and Belgium this week to consult with NATO allies. He will also have a conference call today with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the U.K.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has united the world. He doesn’t have many friends out there anymore. I’m not sure he ever did.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells CNN he’s ready for negotiations with Putin. “I’m ready for negotiations with him. I was ready for the last two years. And I think without negotiations we cannot end this war.”
Zelensky went on. “I think we have to use any format, any chance in order to have a possibility of negotiating, possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a Third World War.”
An ominous warning. Maybe, just maybe, Vladimir Putin is open to talking. His war is not going as he wanted. Maybe, just maybe, Volodymyr Zelensky can talk him down. Impress him. Just like he has impressed the rest of the world. Fingers crossed.