Daniel Bilak, a Canadian-Ukrainian lawyer and member of a territorial defence unit, says U.S. President Donald Trump is being ‘made to look weak’ as negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin haven't helped end Moscow's fighting with Ukraine.

Moscow

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant recently relied on emergency generators after power outages caused by Russian shelling, highlighting the ongoing dangers in the region. Following a major Russian air attack on Kyiv, which resulted in casualties and damage, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's president, reportedly agreeing to strengthen Ukraine's air defenses.

Daniel Bilak, a Canadian-Ukrainian lawyer and member of Ukraine's territorial defense, commented that Trump is being made to look weak by Putin, as the Russian leader shows no intention of ending the war. Bilak emphasized the need for increased Western military support for Ukraine, arguing that meaningful peace can only be achieved by defeating Russian forces. He also noted that Ukraine is ramping up its own defense capabilities but still requires significant allied assistance to counter ongoing Russian aggression.

Trump getting ‘played’ by Putin, lawyer says

Ukraine's Aparisia nuclear plant was forced to rely on emergency diesel generators for several hours yesterday after the power went out It's back on now, but the UN's nuclear agency warns the safety situation Remains extremely precarious the plant lies on the front line of the war with Russia and Ukraine says Russian shelling damaged the lines The News comes as key was recovering from the latest Russian air onslaught Ukrainian officials reported 11 missiles and more than 500 drones were launched One person was killed and 23 injured the attacks damaged 40 apartment blocks and five schools And they came just hours after a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Trump also spoke with Ukraine's president after the attack reportedly agreeing to cooperate in strengthening the country's air defenses For more on this we've reached Daniel Bilak He is a Canadian Ukrainian lawyer, and he's also a member of the territorial defense forces today We are not disclosing his location for security reasons Daniel. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us this morning Great to be here Let's start with that discussion between the two leaders on that u.s. Led effort to end the war with Russia and the importance of the timing of the phone call in this conflict What's your take on that? Well, I think that is starting to dawn on President Trump that he's being played He's being made to look weak by President Putin and that and that that you know He's being made to look look actually foolish. She's in his own words. He's being tapped along by by Putin I mean, it's obviously clear that that Putin has no interest whatsoever in stopping this war. He thinks he's winning. He thinks he can outlast Western aid and Western Resilience and and support for Ukraine. He thinks that he can he can just drag this on He doesn't care how many people he loses human life has no meaning to him and in in any in any way anyway So I think that you know President Trump doesn't like to be made to look weak And hopefully at this point we will get serious about not talking about stopping shipments of weapons and defensive missiles to Ukraine but Ramping them up You talk about the optics for President Donald Trump. How much sway in your opinion? Does he realistically have on? Ending this conflict potentially again looking at the timing of this and just knowing there was that record amount of drone and missile strikes Over that region at this point, what can he really do? look, there there is no peace for Ukraine right now that doesn't leave Ukraine in pieces and The what we really need everybody needs to understand all of our allies Need to understand clearly that the only way that you can bring this war to a successful Conclusion with real meaningful peace in Europe is to defeat the Russian army in Ukraine I mean we are in this situation right now Marianne because Largely our allies for whom we're deeply grateful for for all the support that we do get but our allies have largely enabled Putin to to ramp up have produced drones on a mass scale. They've given up lots of space We weren't given long-range missiles back last year when we really could have done some serious damage to the Russians Because everybody was afraid of escalation. I mean didn't seem to prevent escalation from happening I mean, this is the problem with appeasement if you if you keep appeasing the bully The dictator he's just gonna double down and and and ask for more and and take more We we need to have our allies They now starting to realize Europe is starting to realize thanks to President Trump in a backhanded sort of way that that they have to take much more responsibility for their own security and And we are the front line of that security We are the eastern shield of European security today And everybody is starting to finally dawn after four years that is starting to dawn on them that if Ukraine falls They're going to be next and the con and and there's now no guarantee and no serious assumption that An article 5 NATO Situation would would have the United States come in full bore and and protect people the article 5 says each country will do what it can to support the other country and That doesn't necessarily mean military aid and that's not a guarantee anymore. And so the Europeans are starting to panic we've seen massive increases or announcements of Increases in military spending but that has to Ukraine has to be the front line the front and center of that process and Ukraine needs to be integrated into the European security architecture. We have a million person army it's larger than the next four armies of Europe put together and And so, you know, we it's going to be extremely difficult for us if the United States isn't there We're hoping now that President Trump is has tried to get Putin to the table that he's starting to realize that's not gonna happen and And perhaps we can we can get back to protecting the lives of Ukrainians and defeating the Russian army in Ukraine Finally, I just want to ask you we don't have a lot of time left But realistically how much longer can Ukraine continue to bear the brunt of these Russian assaults? Marianne we will throw stones at them if we have to I mean we understand clearly that Every inch of land every village that gets taken by the Russians it means the people that left in those villages are Reduced to a life of slavery and slaughter if they continue to to act as Ukrainians and not as Russians The thing is that there aren't many people left in many of these places. Russia just levels everything It destroys everything in its path before it advances And so are we are fighting an existential battle here. We have nowhere to go We have to fight to to the end we are producing and we are standing up our own defense industrial base and we've been very successful in taking out a lot of the Infrastructure military infrastructure inside Russia and now we're moving deeper and deeper into Russia now We've taken out 20% of Russia's oil refining capacity Overall, then so we we are going to continue to fight back. We are developing our own weapons We are we are probably the leading country in the world in military Technology right now. I mean basically as somebody said if you're in defense Technology and you're not and you're innovating and developing in that sector and you're not in Ukraine you're just guessing because your your kit needs to be battle proven in Ukraine and that's what's happening now and both on in terms of electronic warfare interceptors long-range missiles FPV drones loitering munitions We're we're innovating but we need the help of our allies to ramp that up We need to scale it because Russia is a big place Daniel Belak and they need to be hit Daniel Belak Canadian Ukrainian lawyer Thank you so much for your time and your insight as always Thank you. God bless the people of Canada. Thanks for your support

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Ukraine Invasion