​Ukraine will fight the tyranny of Putin despite Trump and Orban - Steve Cardownie

BBC reported that the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, had a private meeting last Friday with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Largo mansion in Florida, when Trump told him that if he was elected President he would cut the United States funding for Ukraine.

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban met likely US presidential Republican candidate Donald Trump in Florida last week

​Orban, himself no friend of Ukraine and a long-time ally of Trump, told Hungary’s M1 TV channel on Sunday that “He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war. That’s why the war will end. It’s obvious Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet.”

So, on Monday I discussed this latest development with a captain in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Vladislav told me that as a serving politician in the Ukrainian Parliament he signed up for military service (about 50 other MPs doing likewise) and he was now only a short distance from the Russian forces in the Kharkiv region.

From Edinburgh’s twin city of Kyiv and married with two children, he told me that the fighting was constant “24/7” and that although the men under his command hoped to be rotated to the rear more often, their resolve to repel the invaders was “100 per cent.”

Steve Cardownie

He was aware of Orban’s comments but said that he was hopeful that the US public would ensure that aid would continue, without which it “would make the situation difficult for Ukraine.”

He said that the Ukrainian people were up to speed with political events and looked to the UK and the USA as the main defenders of democracy in the world. He was extremely grateful for their support and felt that no matter who was elected president, the American people would not abandon Ukraine.

Back on the battlefield, he told me that their positions in Kharkiv were continually under fire, targeted by “kamikaze” drones.

A major aspect of the war was “largely being fought in control rooms with handheld controllers and computer screens” and they desperately needed the delivery of fighter jets, not only to bolster their defences but to aid counter offensives.

Vlad was aware that thousands of Ukrainian women and children were temporarily re-settled in Edinburgh and Scotland and wanted to express his gratitude for the support that was being provided for them.

Some time ago I was of the view that surely Trump could not be re-elected given that even the people who voted for him first time around had enough evidence that exposed him for the kind of person he was, with the Washington Post fact checker team cataloguing 30,573 false or misleading claims made by him during the four years he was in office.

Alas his “Make America Great Again” space cadets have ensured that he will once again be on the ballot paper for the forthcoming presidential election race this November, despite the threat that he poses.

An admirer of dictators and despots, it beggars belief that any rational being would vote for this frustrated tyrant, yet it seems that millions of deluded Americans are prepared to do just that.

For Ukraine’s sake and ours, I for one hope that he loses, although he is likely to falsely claim, once again, that the election was stolen from him!