Trump’s treatment of Ukraine is a betrayal for the ages
VINAY MENON
15 October 2026
The Toronto Star
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is at war with Russia and, seemingly, with America.
Arthur Miller once observed, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” Or as noted philosopher Nicole Richie put it: “It’s hard to tell who has your back from who has it long enough just to stab you in it.”
In Ukraine this week, it is nothing but sticky, backstabbing betrayal. The news was grim on Wednesday.
Overnight, Ukraine’s soldiers were literally operating in the dark. Starlink, which forces rely upon for battlefield comms and targeting, was throttled without warning. The Starlink military terminals, known as Starshield, were downgraded with speed limits, which immediately scuttled combat missions as it was impossible to launch accurate mid- to long-range strikes.
Imagine if your SUV suddenly could not go past 30 km/h on Highway 401 as your wife was going into labour.
Elon Musk did not immediately explain any changes to Ukraine’s Starlink services. But across Europe, people weighed in with theories. As Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, wrote on X: “Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, we are watching you.”
Around the same time, Ukraine did not receive advance Intel about another Russian incoming ballistic attack on Kyiv that knocked out power to more than 600,000 civilians and caused more death and destruction. For 1,693 days, Ukrainians have endured bombs, evacuation sirens and unimaginable cruelty and hardships as the country fights for its survival.
It is crystallizing as a twoheaded monster: Vladimir Putin wants to erase Ukraine. Donald Trump keeps handing him an eraser.
The list is long. But President Dipstick’s betrayal of Ukraine ranks near the top of all the rotten things he has ever done in his rotten life. At every turn, he has blamed Zelenskyy and even made inane excuses for Putin’s illegal invasion.
Trump has not said boo about Putin’s mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Not one monosyllabic grunt about the systemic rape of Ukrainian women. Not a peep about the deliberate targeting of residential housing, hospitals, schools, theatres, buses, libraries, churches, roads, bridges and stores. Not one condemnation as the corpses of Ukrainian civilians are pulled from the rubble every night.
We are watching a Mad King play hopscotch with an Evil Czar as Ukrainians die.
On a presidential debate stage, a decade ago nearly to the day, Hillary Clinton said Putin would “rather have a puppet as president of the United States.” She was right. But Trump is not just a Kremlin puppet. He is mannequin garbed in a synthetic suit tailored with betrayal. He is Putin’s ventriloquist dummy. He sits on Vladdy Daddy’s lap and repeats the lies and talking points.
He blames Zelenskyy for starting the war, which is as moronic as saying Chris Rock’s cheek is responsible for getting slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars. Then Putin makes the jaws of his orange dummy move up and down some more and Trump says his master is a great and strong leader. He says Putin wants peace, which is like saying Katie Zacharia wants an Old Navy hoodie.
A few days ago, Trump unilaterally announced an “energy ceasefire” between Ukraine and Russia. It took less than an hour for Trump’s puppeteer to blow up more of Ukraine’s power grid while chortling at the easily manipulated useful idiot doing his bidding in the White House.
Trump just called for Zelenskyy to be replaced.
Who needs a Manchurian Candidate when Putin has a Moscow Mule?
Ukraine was taking the fight to Russia this summer. It was regaining territory and striking targets behind enemy lines. It was wreaking havoc on Russian commerce and energy. It was finally making Russians share in the pain of war.
Then the ventriloquist dummy was informed of wretched polls in advance of next month’s midterms. Trump needed a fall guy to blame for the spike in gas and diesel prices. Instead of blaming himself for his own illegal war in Iran, he blamed Zelenskyy for targeting Russian refineries.
Russian diesel is seemingly more valuable to Trump than Ukrainian blood.
Zelenskyy is now staring into the abyss. He is running out of interceptors needed to knock down Russian jet drones and glide bombs. He knows Russia wants to destroy Ukraine’s energy plants. He knows Putin and Trump are BFFS in this geopolitical treachery, two powerful men without one moral compass.
Trump now bears responsibility for every Ukrainian casualty. If Starlink is not restored, so does Musk. Zelenskyy, the most impressive leader in my lifetime, is trying to save his country as Russia punches him in the face and America holds his hands behind his back.
It is a double whammy. It is a war with two fronts.
It is a betrayal for the ages.
Vinay Menon is a columnist and feature writer in the Entertainment department who has covered popular culture for the Star since 1999. He has been nominated for a Michener Award and, in 2014, won the National Newspaper Award for Arts and Entertainment writing. Menon, who
holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto, is also the author of RUSH: An Oral History, Uncensored. Accomplishments: Nomination — National Newspaper Award, Arts and Entertainment (2015); Winner — National Newspaper Award, Critical Writing/Arts and Entertainment (2014);Nomination (Team) — Michener Award (1997)