‘He Always Betrays Those Who Count on Him’ – Ukraine at War Update for Dec. 9

In a Sunday TV interview and a series of late-night posts on his Truth Social platforms, US President-elect Donald Trump said that there should be an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, that Kyiv “possibly” should expect much less US aid under his administration, and that he “absolutely” would consider withdrawing from NATO if certain thresholds are not met.

Trump had just met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris the day before for the re-opening of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral.

“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Trump remarked on the war in Ukraine in posts at 2 a.m. on Sunday. “Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse.”

“Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” he wrote.

The once and future US president placed the figure of Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) troops killed in the nearly three-year war at about 400,000, and noted that “close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”

Zelensky challenged those figures, voicing official death tolls for the first time, stating, “Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action on the battlefield.”

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He told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that Ukraine would “possibly” receive less military aid going forward.

“We’re in for $350 billion, and Europe is in for $100 billion. Why isn’t Europe in for the same as us?” he said about contributions to Kyiv since 2022, although, again, it was unclear where those figures came from.

On the subject of NATO in the NBC interview, Trump said he is thinking of withdrawing the US from the alliance unless certain conditions are met.

“Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations—they don’t take our cars, they don’t take our food products, they don’t take anything. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said. “And, on top of that, we defend them, so it’s a double whammy.”

“So let me just tell you. I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude,” he continued. “I told the countries, ‘I’m not going to protect you unless you pay,’ and they started paying. That amounted to more than 600 billion dollars. That’s a big thing, otherwise they wouldn’t be fighting, they wouldn’t have any money to fight.”

“If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, absolutely, I would stay with NATO,” he concluded.

Trump has not explained how he could exit NATO as a founding signatory to the treaty that was ratified by the Senate per the US Constitution.

According to NATO’s official history, on April 4, 1949, Secretary of State Dean Acheson signed the North Atlantic Treaty on behalf of the US. The Senate ratified the treaty on July 21, 1949, by a vote of 83-13. US President Harry S. Truman and Secretary Acheson then signed the Instrument of Accession on July 25, 1949, making the United States a founding member of NATO.

Kyiv says the fall of Damascus is Assad’s fault for putting his faith in Putin’s support

Zelensky and his cabinet on Sunday heralded the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, saying any authoritarian ally of Moscow that relies on Russian leader Vladimir Putin for support can expect much the same. Kyiv echoed the judgment of the international community that the Kremlin was unable to fight simultaneous wars on two fronts.

Assad arrived in Moscow on Sunday.

“Assad has fallen. This is how it has always been and will always be for dictators who bet on Putin. He always betrays those who rely on him,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on social media, reaffirming Kyiv’s “support for the Syrian people.” 

Later in the day, the Ukrainian foreign ministry (whose country, overthrew a Moscow-backed regime about a decade ago, AFP noted) said that the weekend’s events in Damascus mean that the “courageous Syrian people can turn the page on the black history of the Assad clan’s rule.” 

Zelensky’s administration said it hoped to restore diplomatic relations with Damascus, which had deteriorated under the Assad regime and called for an end to Moscow’s military presence in the country. 

“We are convinced that the long-term security of Syria depends on the end of the Russian presence in that country,” the foreign ministry said.  

Assad has arrived in Moscow with his family and has been granted asylum by the Russian government, according to Russian News Agency Tass.

Czech group “Just Retribution” beats its fundraising goal for drones for Ukraine by about 100 percent

Ukrainska Pravda reported that the Czech Republic’s initiative to raise funds to purchase drones for the AFU has raised more than CZK 203 million (about $8.4 million) to date, having begun its fundraising efforts almost exactly a year ago.

One of the founders of the organization, Jan Veverka, noted that approximately 12,000 drones have been sent to Ukraine, with another 3,000 awaiting shipment. The group reported that it had doubled its fundraising goal of about €4 million ($4.2 million), and announced it had since introduced a project to raise money for about 100 tons of plastic explosives and related supplies.

That new project, named Spravedlivá Odplata (Just Retribution), will acquire those explosives in batches of five tons, it said, with each batch costing the approximate equivalent of €398,000, including transportation.