Montevideo
A gentle summer rain washed the dusty streets of Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, as I arrived at the harbor terminal to board the evening ferry for Buenos Aires across the Plata River. Being early, I had a glass of the good Uruguayan red wine, and on my mobile phone began reading the news, the scandalous, the terrible, horrible, awful news, pouring in from Washington.
The public shouting match between president Zelenskyy and US president Trump, the latter aggressively supported by his vice, J.D. Vance, reminded me on the meetings, as we know them from the records, between Adolf Hitler and various European leaders, showing up in Berlin, in Munich or in Berghof. To be informed about the wishes and orders of the omnipotent Nazi-Führer and the dire consequences it would have, were they not respected. Such an omission would be playing with the lives of millions of people, maybe with a new world war.
The tone of the meeting in the White House, even some of the words, were taken almost verbatim from the minutes of those days, only this time they were used by the President of the United States, elected in 2024.
I am rarely proud of our politicians, but times change. While travelling in the Americas, North and South, since the fatal US elections in October last year I have changed with them. I was an unflinching supporter of Ukraine: no compromises with the fascist aggressor of Russia, no appeasement, no nonsense. This attitude I applied to the public in general and especially to myself, leaving some room of maneuver – not very much – for our political leaders.
That maybe lenient attitude went up in the warm and wet air of South America, as on Friday, on direct TV, I followed the drama between Trump and his European guest. Was I proud? Yes. Proud of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, our Winston Churchill of the 21st century. Bravo Mr. President! You dared to look into the cold and glaring eyes of the White House gangster-in-chief. You did not try to charm him with sweet words or patting him on his knee, as did French President Macron the other day. You showed courage and intellectual integrity. As you told the gangster off, and you gave us all a great example to follow. Until March 2025 you provided Europe with its bravest day, so far, in the 21st century.
We will need more of such days. Much determination has already been shown in the Nordic and Baltic states, small as they are, in Great Britain and in Poland, which is bigger than many believe, even the Poles. We need now that the rest of our democratic continent move forward, rapidly, united in words and deed. The French and the Spanish are already moving. Germany hopefully will come along under a new government. Soon.
Writing from South America, I am reminded of a novel by Gabriel García Marques: The Chronicle of an Announced Death. Everybody in the village knew that the killing would happen, nobody dared or bothered to lift a finger. This is where we are now: the killing of NATO, performed by Trump, took place in broad daylight; the dead body lies in the street for us all to see. We were supposed to be left in no doubt, not Zelenskyy, not the Ukrainians, nor the rest of Europe, certainly not the American electorate, that because the democratically elected and democratically acting president of a democratic European country, partly destroyed by its fascist neighbor, refuses to take orders from Trump, he and Europe were to be left on their own, no NATO, no Atlantic community, the Putinisation of the US. It was a trap, organized and shameful, which will haunt the USA for ages.
In Europe, we can say that finally the Second World War, the Cold War and the post-Cold War is over. We are free of the 20th century. Am I nervous? To a degree, yes. But also, I am relieved. No more speculation, no more doubts, no more grey zones.
This is Europe’s moment. This is Europe’s moment to take its fate into its own hands. Now is the moment, when we can realize that we have the resources, plenty of them, with which to defend our civilization, our culture, our specified freedoms: of speech, of movement, of assembly, of habeas corpus, all properly discussed by the public, and properly, by our freely and properly elected political representatives, voted into law, obligations and privileges, responsible citizenship. Not to be confused with the vague freedom, sold by Trump to his useful idiots, who believe in an uncivilized right to run around in the streets with loaded AK-47s.
As never before, now is the moment for the Europeans to come together. We already are more united than ever in Europe, which emerged during the reign of Charles the Great more than a thousand years ago. The historic possibility, indeed, the historic obligation, is a rejuvenated, well-armed Europa, led by Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland as a kind of permanent European security council, supported by a general assembly, consisting of the rest of Europe. This new alliance, which could easily include Canada and even Mexico and other Latin American countries, can deploy two nuclear powers and the battle-hardened, conventional armed forces of Ukraine as a forward defense against Asian barbarity.
Europe will be grateful to President Zelenskyy, who courageously told Trump that enough was enough. Seen at an enormous distance and only a few hours after the event, I dare write that Ukraine has restored the honor and the dignity of Europe. Was the Ukrainian president called to Washington to sign a silly treaty concerning the delivery of rare earth? Most probably not. I believe that he was called to Washington to suffer humiliation on behalf of all of us in the dirty hands of Trump (the convicted criminal). The intended message was that the military weak Europe is taken seriously by neither the US of Donald Trump nor Russia of Vladimir Putin.
The circumstances – even the body language as seen on TV – suggest to me that Zelenskyy was invited for a dark political purpose, an ambush, a hostage taking. If not, why the provocation by Vance that Ukraine was not grateful for the American assistance provided? Why the episode of, literally, kicking the Ukrainian delegation out of the White House, a performance which hinted at Adolf Hitler in 1938, after the Munich Conference. Taking leave of British Prime Minister Chamberlain at the top of the majestic staircase leading from the conference room down to the street, the Nazi-Führer sneered to his entourage: “If that fool ever returns, I will kick him down these steps.”
Zelenskyy was nobody’s fool in Washington. Sharply, he cut through the falsehoods, the lies and the threats of Trumpist Washington. Whether there will be a new round of talks later is an unimportant matter. What is important now is that Zelenskyy showed us all, also the Americans, that Trumpist USA is an ally of fascist Russia and of unspeakable North Korea and as such, an enemy of democracy and human dignity. The US is now our enemy. I expect that US assistance to Ukraine will slow down within weeks. I expect that European assistance to Ukraine will be increased and repurposed from an attempt to avoid the worst to arrive at an indisputable victory for Ukraine and for Europe.
Given the resources of Europe and the advanced weakness of Russia after more than three years of total war in Ukraine, this goal is entirely feasible within the next couple of years.
Meanwhile, goodbye, America!
By Per Nyholm
*These opinions are solely those of the author. The Ukrainian Review takes no, position and is not responsible for the author’s words.
Per Nyholm has been a Danish journalist since 1960. He is based in Austria and is a columnist and foreign correspondent at the Jyllands-Posten, a liberal Danish daily newspaper.
Tetiana Stelmakh adapted this text for The Ukrainian Review.
