by Thierry Meyssan

It was not Donald Trump who turned against the Kiev regime, as we are led to believe, but Volodymyr Zelensky who had US interests bombed, causing heavy damage to Chevron and ExxonMobil. It is therefore completely futile to believe that a visit to Washington will be enough for Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron to reverse the situation.
It may seem absurd to attack one’s allies, but that is what the Nazis did against Poland and what the Ukrainian integral nationalists did against the United States.

Voltaire Network | Paris (France) | 26 February 2025

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On February 20, French President Emmanuel Macron presented his vision of the conflict with Russia based on an inverted map of Ukraine: We are the good guys, they are the bad guys.

February 12

French President Emmanuel Macron immediately reacted to the announcement of the US-Russia talks in Riyadh. He convened a meeting of his seven main allies on the European continent at the Élysée Palace on February 12: the foreign ministers of Germany (Annalena Baerbock), Spain (José Manuel Albares Bueno), the United Kingdom (David Lammy), Italy (Antonio Tajani), Poland (Radosław Sikorski) and the High Representative of the European Commission for Foreign Policy (Estonian Kaja Kallas), as well as the European Commissioner for Defense and Space (Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius).

This meeting was to determine a common response. Of course, that was not the case. Only France and the United Kingdom are ready to send troops to Ukraine to enforce the implementation of a possible peace. Germany, Spain and Italy are firmly opposed to it. The EU and especially the Baltic states would like the others to do so.

At the same time, the US Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, was in Kiev. Not to give billions more and more to the Ukrainians, but on the contrary, to demand… 500! With Trumpian aplomb, he presented the exorbitant bill for three years of war. The unelected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, replied that he would not give in to this racket.

At least, that is the official version. The truth is quite different: last June, Zelensky received Senator Lindsey Graham, an old friend of the “integral nationalists”. He had explained to him that by invading his country, Russia only wanted to seize its rare earths, the value of which he had estimated at between 10,000 and 12,000 billion dollars. Graham had repeated this during his interview on "Face the Nation" (CBSNews, June 9, 2024). This idea had taken hold in the United States, exempting the ruling class from listening to the Russian version. However, the Bloomberg agency revealed on February 19, 2025, that this story was just a hoax, since Ukraine did not have these minerals.

According to Vladimir Sergienko (Vesti FM), the Europeans have already divided up Ukraine, as they did in advance with Iraq, Libya and Syria. The British have privileged access to the ports that they must rebuild and modernize, the Germans to the mines, etc. The United States Congress had adopted, in April 2022, a law authorizing the supply of weapons to Ukraine on the model of the lend-lease of the Second World War (Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022), but this text was never implemented by the Biden administration and expired in September 2023. Everything that Washington provided, whether in money or equipment, was therefore lost.

The Trump administration is therefore now demanding reimbursement of what it and other Western allies gave without compensation. It estimates the total bill at 500 billion dollars, which is only a small part of the supposed 10,000 billion dollars that Ukraine claims to hold.

February 17

In this context, a second meeting was held at the Élysée Palace on February 17, with the same people, plus Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO.

The EU and NATO are two organizations founded by the Anglo-Saxons to monitor Western Europe. Both Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte owe their appointments to London and Washington, even though they were elected by all the representatives of the Member States. But both owe their positions to the Biden administration, not to Donald Trump. They therefore advocate for the continuation of war, especially not peace.

The second meeting at the Élysée Palace was no more useful than the first.

All the more so since the movement has accelerated: while the European lights were deploring the Trumpist revolution in Paris, the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine gave the order, on February 17, to bomb the pipeline linking Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. It is one of the largest in the world. It allows the export of enormous quantities of Kazakh and Russian oil.

Since the establishment of martial law, this Council has been the real executive authority of Ukraine. It meets in the presidential palace so that foreigners do not know that it exercises, de facto, all the executive functions of the country in place of its president and his administration. This president, now unelected, Volodymyr Zelensky (his mandate expired eight months ago), sits there, but has no say in the matter. All decisions are made under the authority of the former head of the foreign secret service (SZRU), Oleksandr Lytvynenko.

This Council, which has banned all opposition political parties, burned three million books and banned the majority Orthodox Church in the country, is the stronghold of the "integral nationalists", that is to say the disciples of Dmytro Dontsov and his future man, Stepan Bandera, the collaborators of the Nazis. By bombing the main pumping station of the pipeline in Russia, he knew what he was doing: he was attacking US interests in Russia.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is owned • 2% by the Italian ENI, • 7.5% by the Caspian Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of the US Mobil • and 15% by Caspian Pipeline Consortium Co., a subsidiary of the US Chevron.

In addition, this pipeline supplies the majority of the oil consumed in Israel.
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine thus declared war on Italy and the United States.

February 18

The US and Russian delegations met at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As I analyzed last week [1], Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, insisted that the discussion not only focus on the war and territorial issues, but also on substantive issues, including relations between the two sides. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, assured that he would stop the harassment of Russian diplomats accredited to his country that the Biden administration was engaging in. Similarly, there will be no more question of canceling artistic events because they celebrate Russian authors. He pledged to honor Washington’s signature and thus to gradually withdraw NATO troops from all countries that joined after German reunification.

From the perspective of Western warmongers, this first contact was uneven: only Washington made concessions, not Moscow. But from the pacifists’ point of view, it could not be otherwise, since in this case all the blame lay with the neoconservatives of the Republican Bush Jr. and Democrat Obama and Biden administrations. Russia accepted that the United States acknowledged its mistakes and demanded nothing in return for the harm it had done.

February 19

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, commented on the Ukrainian bombings and the negotiations with Russia: “I am really disappointed by what happened. I have been watching this for three years… I hear that, you know, they [the Ukrainians] are upset that they were not invited [to the negotiations with Russia] to Riyadh. Well, they had a place for three years and a long time before that. »

More harshly, he posted this message shortly after on TruthSocial: “Think about it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, convinced the United States of America to spend $350 billion to enter a war that could not be won, that should never have started, that he will never be able to solve without the United States and “TRUMP”. The United States spent $200 billion more than Europe, Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will receive nothing in return. Why didn’t Joe Biden demand equalization, since this war is much more important to Europe than it is to us – we have a big beautiful ocean as a divider. On top of that, Zelensky admits that half the money we sent him has “DISAPPEARED”. He refuses to hold elections, he is very low in the Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a violin”. A dictator without elections, Zelensky had better act fast, otherwise he will no longer be able to have a country. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, which everyone admits: only “TRUMP” and the Trump administration can do that. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring peace, and Zelensky probably wants to keep the machine running. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his country is broken and MILLIONS of people have died needlessly – and so on…”

Horrified, pro-Biden Western elites then accused Donald Trump of repeating the propaganda of the “dictator Putin.” According to them, it is reversing the charges to accuse Ukraine of having started the war, when it is the sole fact of the “dictator” who invaded it to conquer it.

 

We explained here, at the outbreak of the conflict, that it had been opened by the Ukrainian army’s bombardments against the population of its territories in Donbass from February 19, 2022. This fact is indisputable and was recorded by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was responsible for observing the internal border of Donbass. Swiss Colonel Jacques Baud, a recognized expert on intelligence services around the world, has pointed out in several in-depth works [2] that the OSCE had noted the Ukrainian bombings in the days preceding Russia’s recognition of the independence of the two Donbass republics, Donetsk and Lugansk, followed a few hours later by the signing of two treaties of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, and two days later, the launch of the special military operation against the Ukrainian “integral nationalists” (and not against Ukraine). NATO’s expression, repeated in all official communiqués of all Western documents, that Russia had engaged in an “illegal and unprovoked invasion” is therefore pure war propaganda.

In this affair, as always, the governments that pour mendacious war propaganda on their peoples are the first victims. Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte have not escaped the rule. They now believe in good faith the absurdities that they have been repeating for three years. [3].

February 23

Volodymyr Zelensky, the “unelected dictator,” announced at a press conference in Kiev that he was ready to resign if it would allow Ukraine to join NATO, which is never going to happen, given the US position. He reiterated that Kiev will not accept anything that it has not negotiated with the US and Russia. Again, it is clear that this will not happen: the US and Russia will decide together, the EU and Ukraine will, whatever they say, comply with their wishes.

February 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Russian Channel One. He said that Russia has many more rare earths than Ukraine and that Moscow is “ready to work with our foreign partners, including the US,” to develop these deposits. In other words, if peace were to come, Washington would not be able to exploit rare earths in Ukraine, since there are none, but could do so in Russia itself.

Vladimir Putin had already said that he would only agree to sign a peace agreement with Ukraine when it has a legitimate leader. Regarding the elections, which were not called because the National Defense and Security Council refused to lift martial law in order to impose its dictatorship, Mr. Putin was in favor of General Valery Zaluzhny, former commander-in-chief of the armed forces and current ambassador to London. According to him, this man is twice as popular in his country as Zelensky is.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Washington. According to French television, he was welcomed at the White House by his counterpart, Donald Trump. But according to US television, it was only done by his counterpart’s chief of staff, in violation of basic rules of protocol.

On February 24th, via live link from Kiev, unelected President Volodymyr Zelensky and his guests participated in a meeting of the expanded G7 around US President Donald Trump, via video conference from the White House.

From the White House, he participated by video in the G7 meeting held in Kiev around unelected President Volodymyr Zelensky and Justin Trudeau (Canadian Prime Minister), Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission) and Antonio Costa (President of the European Council). Olaf Scholz (German Chancellor), Keir Starmer (British Prime Minister), Giorgia Meloni (Italian Prime Minister), Shigeru Ishiba (Japanese Prime Minister) joined by video. Pedro Sánchez, Spanish Prime Minister, who was also in Kiev, participated in the meeting. All participants, including Emmanuel Macron, pledged allegiance to US President Donald Trump and accepted his decisions.

Emmanuel Macron goes to another wing of the White House after having participated in an expanded G7 summit under President Donald Trump and having pledged allegiance to him. He will not be ushered into the Oval Office until after another meeting between Trump and his advisers.

After this exchange, and not before, Emmanuel Macron was allowed to meet President Donald Trump one-on-one in the Oval Office. It is not known what the two men said to each other, but during the press briefing that followed, they congratulated each other on their unity. In other words, President Macron has abandoned his grievances to unreservedly rally, like his G7 colleagues, to President Trump’s decisions.

Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, will travel to Washington on February 27. He will propose to deploy a British peacekeeping force to guarantee the ceasefire, which will be refused by Presidents Putin and Trump, since a protagonist cannot become an arbiter.

The sequence of events is already known: in the next few years, NATO and the EU will be dissolved as the Warsaw Pact and the USSR were. This is the only solution to keep the United States united. Otherwise, it will be the United States that disappears.

European elites will have to assume the security of their homelands alone. They will therefore have to rebuild their armies. This process will take about ten years for countries that, like Denmark, will start tomorrow. The others will expose themselves to the vagaries of History.

France and the United Kingdom, like the others, no longer have armies capable of defending their territory, just "projection forces" that they use to maintain the confetti of their former empires. To pay for real armies, each of these countries will have to cut their spending. In France, this will obviously be in social spending. We will then have to ask ourselves the question of the waste in the Health and Education services. The French are wrongly convinced that their Social Security, their Family Allowances and their pay-as-you-go pensions are inseparable from their Republic, when in fact these are systems inherited from the fascist regime of Philippe Pétain. Of course, the National Council of the Resistance validated them at the Liberation, but they have nothing republican about them.

We must therefore prepare ourselves for difficult days. We must, not in several years, but in the weeks to come, find a way to move from our current social model to another, more modern and freer one, without harming the most deprived. It is unlikely that our current political class is capable of this. Its main leaders have just gathered at the Élysée (again) with President Macron to confirm that they share his vision of the Ukrainian conflict and the “madness” of the President of the United States.

There are trains that we can miss to catch the next one. But this one is the last one.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation
Roger Lagassé

     

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[1] “Westerners and the conflict in Ukraine”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 18 February 2025.

[2] Poutine, maître du jeu ?, par Jacques Baud, Max Milo éditions (2022).

[3] President Emmanuel Macron recorded an hour-long monologue addressed to his fellow citizens. In it, he practices presenting his vision of the Ukrainian conflict. It is an illuminating example of self-persuasion.