So the big brains in Washington have decided to send Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, to Moscow to end a war that’s been grinding on for four-plus years. Because if anyone can crack the code on Eastern European geopolitics, it’s a real estate developer whose main qualification is marrying into the family.
Steve Witkoff is along for the ride too, and they touched down at Vnukovo Airport on Saturday where Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev was waiting on the tarmac. Nice photo op. Very diplomatic. You could almost forget that hours before they landed, Russian forces killed five people in Kamianske, a city in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region. Five dead, five wounded, and the envoys are posing for handshakes.
Here’s what kills me. Zelenskyy actually proposed a three-day ceasefire to cover the envoys’ trip. Ordered Ukrainian forces to stand down. Moscow’s response? Silence. They didn’t even bother saying no. They just kept bombing. And our guys flew in anyway, smiling, carrying what Trump called “a proposal to end the war.”
Trump himself diagnosed the problem Friday, and I have to admit, the man has a way with words. He said the peace deal has been elusive because of what he called a “personality problem.” “President Zelenskyy and President Putin truly hate each other,” Trump told reporters. “They have serious hate, and it’s getting in the way.” There’s your four-year foreign policy analysis from the commander in chief. Not strategic interests, not NATO expansion, not territorial disputes. They just hate each other. Case closed.
Rubenstein (BY) via wikimediaNow here’s the part the mainstream coverage is glossing over. This is Witkoff and Kushner’s first trip to Moscow since January. January. We’re in September. That’s eight months where nobody from this administration bothered to show up. And why? Because for the last six months, Washington has been busy with its war against Iran. CNBC said it plainly: the peace push “has lost momentum as U.S. attention has been focused for the last six months on its war with Iran.”
So let me get this straight. We had a war in Ukraine that we supposedly cared so much about we sent billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. Then we started another war with Iran, and Ukraine just fell off the radar. Now we’re sending the president’s son-in-law back to Moscow with a folder and a smile, and we’re supposed to believe this is a serious diplomatic effort?
The envoys are scheduled to fly to Kyiv on Sunday to meet with Zelenskyy. Axios reported they’ll sit down with both Putin and Zelenskyy separately. And I’m sure those conversations will be very productive and not at all a repeat of every previous round that produced absolutely nothing.
Here’s what I know about how this town works. When they send the family to do the negotiating, it’s not because they expect a breakthrough. It’s because they need a photo and a headline. The war keeps going, the defense contractors keep billing, and the little guy keeps paying for all of it. Every single time.
Five people dead in Kamianske on Saturday morning. But Kushner got his handshake at the airport. So I guess the trip’s already a success.