It is dispiriting to discover how many people are willing to agree that 2+2=5 just because President Trump says so.

I refer here to the recent cartoon by Lisa Benson which supports the falsehoods Trump has recently made about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

First, Zelenskyy is not a dictator. He was elected with 73% of the vote in 2019 in an election that all neutral observers declared was free and fair. It is true that elections last year were canceled, not least because the polling places would most likely become targets for Russian bombardment. Petro Poroshenko, the leader of the opposition, agrees.

The latest poll shows his support at 57%, not 4%, as Trump and Lisa suggest. The United States has not provided Ukraine with $350 billion. Though estimates vary, the Kiel Institute for the International Economy suggests the United States has sent about $120 billion to Ukraine since the war began, whereas the countries of the European Union have contributed about $137 billion.

Finally, Zelenskyy actually did agree to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the only deal Putin would accept would have required Ukraine to revise its constitution such that those Ukrainian provinces then in open rebellion would have veto power over all Ukrainian decisions. Abraham Lincoln wisely rejected a similar compromise offered by the Confederate states in 1861, a decision Trump has also condemned.

The basic facts are these: Putin has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine is a part of Russia. The Ukrainians, with their blood, have proven it is not.

James Richter, Lewiston