Tensions escalated during a meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House’s Oval Office on Friday, Feb. 28.
Trump and Zelenskyy engaged in a shouting match after Vance accused Zelenskyy of not being grateful to the Trump administration for the aid the United States has provided in Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, resulting in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. According to Zelenskyy, the war has claimed the lives of over 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
ChurchLeaders asked Dr. Glen Duerr, professor of international studies at Cedarville University, why he believes Christians in America should care about what is happening in Ukraine.
“First is Matthew 28, the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations, and while Ukraine is one of 193 Member States of the United Nations, it’s still one that is on the hearts of many,” Duerr said.
There is also “a long connection point between the American Evangelical Church in Ukraine.” Although Ukraine is predominantly Eastern Orthodox, evangelical seminaries are spread throughout the country.
Duerr said, “So there are many reasons to care, even though it’s not immediately close to us.” Duerr said that Christians share a heavenly citizenship (Philippians 3:20) with Christians in Ukraine and thus should pray for them.
“And also to have a heart for those in Russia as well. That’s an important point for us,” he added. “There are significant evangelical churches that have been brutalized by Putin as well but [that] still stand firm on the Word of God.”
The conversation then shifted to the spectacle that took place last Friday inside the Oval Office during a meeting in which the press was invited and that involved Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy.
Referring to the contentious White House meeting, Duerr noted that 40 minutes of the 50-minute meeting were “quite cordial.”
“On the one hand, it’s extraordinary because it was so contentious and public,” Duerr said. “That’s just very different. Oftentimes, when there are contentious phone calls or meetings, they’re generally behind closed doors, out of the view of the public. This one was very public and very animated.”
“The last 10 minutes really descended,” Duerr said. When asked why he thought the argument escalated so quickly, Duerr said:
I’ve met J.D. Vance personally and got along with him very well. He does have this personability, but when you’re in politics, you do have to stand firm on some issues. And he’s long been probably the most critical Senator of Zelenskyy—Zelenskyy’s approach to the United States, the way he comes in and he argues, just basically pushes Americans to give money. And in the United States, we do have our own level of debt, some $36 trillion. And so a lot of this came down, in my view, to worldview and questions surrounding it, because…the United States is $36 trillion in debt, and we have now given, at minimum, $120 billion in terms of military and economic aid to Ukraine. President Trump puts the figure much closer to $300 billion, which is why I think he’s pushing for the minerals deal. I think there’s more to it, but that’s it in part. Why the disparity between the numbers? Well, when you’re giving away military equipment, even if it’s older or mothballed, there’s still research and development, design engineering, support staff, so you do have to give monetary credit, I think, where it’s due.
“If Zelenskyy is not going to sign this mineral deal,” which would provide the United States with rare Earth minerals, Duerr said, “I think that is why [press conference] began to fray as well.”
Duerr added:
The other worldview question is for President Trump. He really wants to avoid WWIII. And there’s a long history of European conflicts that have simmered, even going back to the early 1700s—the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic wars, WWI, WWII. All of these started in Europe, they simmered, and then they went elsewhere in the world, in the Americas, typically the Caribbean, North Africa, the Middle East into Asia. And Ukraine has now been invaded by Russia—we’ve hit the three-year anniversary, unfortunately. You have North Korean troops. There you have weaponry from a lot of parts of the world. At what point does this become something global in a time where we have very sophisticated weaponry, including nuclear weapons? And I think that’s Trump’s ultimate point. If you’re not willing to make a deal, this is dangerous for us.
Looking at the situation from Zelenskyy’s point of view, Duerr commented:
On the other hand, Zelenskyy is looking at this in terms of his worldview and saying, “Well, I’m the commander-in-chief of Ukraine, and there needs to be a Ukraine. If you’re not willing to give us security guarantees under NATO, or something wider, or give us military aid, that’s really a danger for me.” The other one for Zelenskyy is, well, and I think it’s shared more broadly, if Russia has a deal with Ukraine, and in that deal, Ukraine gives up mineral rights as well as significant territory, what does it teach other aggressive countries around the world, from China to Iran to Azerbaijan to Turkey to Venezuela? All of them have been saber rattling against their neighbors since 2022, and this is where it becomes very dangerous, because, if we have a short-term peace agreement, we could miss the justice element. And that is that Russia invaded first.
“We cannot forget that Russia is the one that punched Ukraine—Russia is the aggressor,” Duerr said, pointing out that in 1994, Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum, which assured Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons.
