Just 15 months ago, in the Oval Office, Trump shouted at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”
Zelensky fired back, “I'm not playing cards. I'm very serious, Mr. President. I'm very serious... Of course we want to stop the war. But I said to you, with guarantees." In the last year, it seems that Zelensky’s resolve was right. Ukraine has found some winning cards, both through its ingenuity in drone technology and through Russian President Vladimir Putin’s faltering economy, despite higher oil and gas prices and the unwise relaxation of energy sanctions on Russia by the U.S., which provided Moscow with a temporary lease on life.