President Donald Trump’s abrupt change regarding Ukraine war this week occurred during a new frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and aimed to press Moscow to sit at the negotiation table, according to US officials.
By publicly declaring Ukraine could recover all its territory – a position that few NATO leaders share, at least without a dramatic change in battlefield dynamics – Trump hopes to boost the process of reaching a peace agreement between the two parties, authorities said.
It is not yet known if Trump’s new stance will really result in a new round of negotiations. Neither the president nor the high employees anticipated any new imminent measures from the United States, such as more sanctions to Russia or a new massive military aid to Ukraine, which can help change the trajectory of war.
And among several European responsible, the president’s new position was interpreted less as a demonstration of solidarity and more as a way to completely distance himself from war. Many pointed out that the economic conditions cited by Trump in its Tuesday publication in Truth Social have been true for months.
“Anyway, I wish the best for both countries,” Trump wrote in his message.
In recent days, the US President has been increasingly irritated, both in public and private, because Putin did not agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for conversations, after suggesting that he was open to this during his summit with Trump in Alaska last month.
And Trump has recognized that the war in Ukraine has been harder to solve than he expected – a rare admission to a president who usually hates to admit that he was wrong.
Although Trump’s position on who the war is culprit oscillated as a pendulum between Putin and Zelensky, he now seems hurt by the fact that his personal relationship with the Russian leader did not yield progress at the end of the war.
But in addition to the public change of position, Trump did not take steps that could make a difference in practice.
The president remains adamant in stating that new US sanctions against Moscow will not be imposed until European countries interrupt Russian energy purchases.
And it has not announced any significant new military assistance, rather promoting its new system where NATO countries buy American equipment that is then sent to Ukraine.
