The sight of American soldiers kneeling, humbled, as they rolled out the red carpet for the Murderer from Moscow to step into American soil in Alaska is the stuff for nightmare for patriotic Americans. The Shower of Shame in Alaska was called Pursuing Peace; Vladimir Putin smiled coyly from the cozy comfort of the rear seat of the Beast, one of the many symbols of the Office of President of the United States. Moment later, he reeled off a répertoire of half-baked history to justify his murderous campaign in Ukraine. Trump, his host, tagged along, wearing a bland pained smile, it was a look of capitulation by the leader of the Free World. Editorial: That meeting was sickening. Putin loved it.
As the Shower of Shame unfolded in Alaska on August 15, 2025, Kyiv was drenched in a Shower of Death as Putin launched thousands of drones, and a concoction of missiles across Ukraine. No site was sacred. No person was spared. In Mukachevo, a US electronic company that specializes in household items was bombed; in Kyiv, a building belonging to the European Union mission in Ukraine was destroyed; also in Kyiv, a government cabinet building was struck. Putin’s missiles have killed toddlers in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy Oblast, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi, Chernihiv, Novopavlivka and everywhere in Ukraine. Putin’s relentless attacks after the sham in Alaska prompted embattled Ukrainian leader, Zelensky to interrogate Putin’s dark intensions, and Trump’s ability and political will to end the carnage in Ukraine: “If they do not have the will to implement a simple order to stop the attacks, it may take a great deal of effort to get Russia to implement something much more significant, namely peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades to come.”
On August 29, 2025, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session at the request of Ukraine as it brought Russia’s latest daily attacks on Kyiv to the international community. A halt to the scale of the destruction, call for a ceasefire and protection of civilians were top on Ukraine’s request. At the session in New York, Ukraine’s voice was heard, and the UN through its Assistant Secretary General Miroslav Jenča squeaked that a peace deal was: “at risk of rapidly fading” if Russia continues to bomb Ukraine frequently. The UN, the ICJ, WTO, and other global institutions established by US-led world order after WW2 have come under attack from the United States since Trump 2.0 resumed on January 20, 2025. It is a world of autocrats, where the strong feed on the weak, both at home and abroad.
Since the Shower of Shame in Alaska, Trump made nearly a dozen contradictory statements on the issue. First, Trump said Zelensky and Putin will meet for talks. Later, he says Putin does not want to meet Zelensky. Before the sham in Alaska, Trump threatened to impose sanctions on Russia if Putin failed to agree to his request for immediate ceasefire. However, when Putin failed to make any concession during the meeting, Trump buckled and patted Putin on the back. There was no talk of sanctions. Instead, discussions about possible areas of economic cooperation between Russia and the US took center stage. Later still, when Trump was pressured by European allies, the Committee of the Willing, he said he was ready for second phase of sanctions against Russia. Nevertheless, Trump who said he was “not thrilled” by the recent actions of Russia, must speak first with Putin.
While Trump yearns for audience with Putin, the Russian maximum ruler was recently in the company of other autocratic leaders and sponsors of Alternate World Order, who gathered in a show of solidarity and strength in Beijing to mark 70 years of the end of WW2. The gathering conveyed a foreboding for the Free World, but with Trump as US President, Europe, Canada, Australia and the rest of the Free World must continue to share the burden of protecting democracy and freedom everywhere.
Will the war in Ukraine end anytime soon? Will Ukrainians once again live in their country without the Shadow of Death from Putin darkening Ukraine’s once beautiful skies? Putin doesn’t accept Ukraine as a country, and he doesn’t recognize Zelensky as legitimate leader of Ukraine. Also, he boasts that he will accomplish all his war aims over Ukraine; this is the reason Zelensky and Ukrainians need the voice and commitment of everyone who loves freedom. Zelensky and Ukraine need the Committee of the Willing, and influential politicians in the US who can convince Trump that it is in the interest of America to support Ukraine. Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it may be Estonia. If Trump thinks the war is only about Ukraine, he should be reminded that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine. Putin has a revanchist desire to reacquire the old Soviet Union and so long as Putin is on the loose, no country within the sphere of the old Soviet empire is safe. Poland just got a taste. Russia fired about 19 drones into its air space. Recently, it was alleged that Russian agents were involved in the GPS jamming of Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft, as the European Commission President travelled from Warsaw to Plovdiv in Bulgaria, countries under the defunct USSR. The only thing that halts a bully like Putin is superior force. The Committee of the Willing and the US must provide the superior force to stop Putin.
This article was published by Soni Gold in August 2025
