I had intended to write on another pressing geopolitical topic, but I felt the unprecedented and strange public spat at the White House between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and US President Trump and Vice President Vance requires comment as it has raised the question if there is any way forward to a Russian-Ukrainian peace deal or ceasefire. Watching this unfold left me very surprised, but it also reminded me of a biblical passage which I will share at the end of this post.
Such important international events featuring heads-of-state usually are choreographed carefully to create positive images that will be given to the public. For days the media had all informed us that the Zelenskyy visit was for the purpose of signing a rare earths/minerals agreement between the USA and Ukraine where both nations would cooperate on developing those resources inside Ukraine. It seemed to be a win-win situation for both nations. It turned into a very public spat between the Ukrainian and American leaders. While Zelenskyy seemed not to grasp the seriousness of his behavior trying to bully Trump, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the USA understood clearly the scope of the disaster that was happening before her eyes as she buried her head in her hands (first link). I think many Ukrainians back in Ukraine will share their ambassador’s reaction. Zelenskyy seemed oblivious to the fact that he was “biting the hand of the one who feeds him.” The USA has given an incomprehensible amount of help to the Ukraine, and Zelenskyy seemed to not care or be thankful much at all. Zelenskyy kept pushing for American security guarantees “on the spot” which was not going to happen as that possibility wasn’t even on that day’s agenda. Zelenskyy also doesn’t help himself by showing up for formal meetings looking like he bought his attire at Good Will Industries. The confrontation can be found in the second link.
Not only was the agreed-upon document not signed, a joint press conference was cancelled, a formal meal went uneaten and Trump essentially ordered the Ukrainians to leave the White House. After waiting a short time (perhaps to see if Zelenskyy had a change of heart), Trump flew to Mar-a-Lago. I think Zelenskyy made a major miscalculation. I watched Fox News after the confrontation at the White House and Treasury Secretary Bessent said that when he flew to Kiev to negotiate the deal, Zelenskyy treated him much the same way Zelenskyy treated Trump. He also stated that Zelenskyy said “he’d sign it in Munich,” but later reneged on that statement. I think Zelenskyy thought Trump was so politically desperate for an agreement that Trump could be badgered into adding a security agreement to the minerals deal. Zelenskyy is used to dealing with a senile Joe Biden so Zelenskyy couldn’t have been more wrong about trying to bully Trump. Zelenskyy is dealing with arguably the toughest US president since Harry Truman–who dropped two atomic bombs to end a war. I thought Trump had every reason to feel insulted and disrespected.
Zelenskyy also failed to understand that Trump was giving Zelenskyy the maximum help he could at this point in the negotiation to end the Ukraine-Russian war. Trump couldn’t give formal American security agreements to Ukraine–it would have ended the negotiations as Russia would have walked away. What Trump offered was ingenious. If there had been an agreement signed to have American industries develop Ukrainian rare earth minerals, it would have meant billions of dollars in US investment coming into Ukraine, US personnel scouring Ukrainian territory to find desirable mineral deposits and American engineers and employees scattered throughout Ukraine. Does anyone think Trump would not protect American factories, mines, and citizens working inside Ukraine? Of course he would. So what Zelenskyy was offered in the minerals deal was an implicit American security agreement. Did no one explain this to Zelenskyy, or was he too obtuse to accept only an implicit deal?
NATO leaders must have been horrified at the White House confrontation. I’m sure they realize that while Trump and the USA do not need Ukraine, the Ukraine desperately needs the USA and Trump. Zelenskyy’s hostility toward Trump could have repercussions in how Trump deals with the EU. After the White House confrontation, Zelenskyy was a guest on a FOX News program hosted by Bret Baier. Mr. Baier offered Zelenskyy repeated chances to apologize for his offensive behavior at the White House, but Zelenskyy refused to do so. Baier asked pointed and necessary questions, but Zelenskyy answered in political circles that did not really answer the questions. As Ukrainians back in Ukraine have a chance to see videos of Zelenskyy offending Ukraine’s most important weapons supplier, they will likely feel like weeping as did the Ukrainian ambassador in the first link. It may be that the only way for any Ukrainian-Russian peace process to continue is for Zelenskyy to resign and elections to be held in Ukraine so a credible, new leader can emerge.
While Ukraine’s need for an end to this war have been much discussed, the reasons Russia needs an end to this war aren’t discussed much, but they do exist. Estimates I’ve seen in media reports number Russia’s casualties in the war at perhaps as high as a half million. Russia thought its armored columns would steamroll through Ukraine within a week when it invaded, but Russian intelligence was very flawed. In his first term, President Trump equipped the Ukrainian military with Javelin anti-tank weapons that any infantryman could fire. It was quickly seen that the Javelin missiles were very good tank-killers and they could easily take out any Russian armored vehicles. Russia’s losses have been high, but it is hard to get good numbers. The third link makes an attempt, but after reporting that 1400 Russian tanks have been lost, it also has a graph indicating circa 4,000 Russian tanks have been destroyed (and that doesn’t include the many thousands of other types of armored vehicles destroyed). The fourth link also details how Ukraine has inflicted major damage on Russia in naval warfare. There is one sign that indicates Russia is scraping the bottom of the barrel for reinforcements in this war. Russia has had to import over 10,000 North Korean mercenaries to help fight its war vs. Ukraine. That speaks volumes. There is another reason Russia needs an end to this war. NATO nations are watching very carefully how Russia fights a war and what are Russia’s capabilities and weaknesses. Russia learned early on that its tank and armored forces were already obsolete when facing NATO anti-tank weaponry from the USA, the UK and Sweden. Having a “hot” war raging in Ukraine also gives NATO nations many opportunities to secretly test their latest weaponry against Russian weaponry in combat conditions. Being able to do so gives NATO an advantage. Russia needs to end the war to end this NATO advantage.
I’m not going to predict what happens going forward in the Ukraine-Russian negotiations, but I’ll now discuss the biblical passage that came to my mind as watched the utterly unexpected argument at the White House between national leaders from Ukraine and the USA. The passage is in Proverbs 21:1, which states: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turns it whithersoever he will.” This means simply that God can direct the hearts and minds of rulers in any direction he wants in order to fulfill his prophecies and his will on the earth. God can put into rulers’ hearts to direct nations to do anything he wants them to do. A prime biblical example is how often the Bible says God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” in the plagues upon Egypt to accomplish God’s purpose in releasing the hosts of Israelite slaves and to have Pharaoh himself lead Egypt into national destruction. Ezekiel 38:10 prophesies that God is going to pick a time in the latter days when the leader of the Gog-Magog alliance will “think an evil thought” and order an attack upon the USA and the nations of the Western world. As Ezekiel 38-39 reveals, God’s purpose is to destroy the nations in the Gog-Magog alliance and to prove to the attacked nations that the Creator God Himself is the source of their prosperity and protection as the Millennial Age dawns.
Sometimes national leaders do inexplicable things. President Zelenskyy just did such a thing. We humans are not privy to God’s global plans, but we see in the Bible God can direct leaders to do seemingly odd things to fulfill his will for national futures. The latter days of our age is a time for which God has made many prophecies about nations and human society. This means our time is one where God is likely to increasingly “herd” nations into whatever his will is for them. My article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, contains much evidence about fulfilled latter-day prophecies in our time. One of the most provable prophecies in found in Zephaniah 2:1-11. It foretells that in the time near the end of this age, the Jews (“Judah”) will again have a nation in the old Promised Land which will include the coastal region and the city of Ashkelon (verse 7). In 1948, the Jews founded a new nation in the old Promised Land which included the coastal region and the city of Ashkelon. A person would have to be a blind soul indeed to not see a Divine Hand in the specific fulfillment of that ancient prophecy given circa 630 BC. Verses 8-11 prophesies that the people in the nations surrounding that new Jewish nation will persistently try to seize land from the Jewish state and challenge its borders. That also accurately describes the real world situation of what has happened from 1948 to the present.
There will surely be more surprises besides the White House Trump-Zelenskyy argument ahead of us as we progress deeper into the latter days of our age. If you are curious how I could identify the USA and the Western nations as those being attacked by the Gog-Magog alliance in the latter days in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy, you can find the answers in either my four-book set on the history of the ten tribes of Israel or my E-book on the same topic. Both are available at the home page of my website.
- https://www.instagram.com/
saintjavelin/reel/DGoCyw0IguT/ - https://www.foxnews.com/video/
6369451601112 - https://www.iiss.org/online-
analysis/military-balance/ 2025/02/combat-losses-and- manpower-challenges- underscore-the-importance-of- mass-in-ukraine/ - https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/
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