President Trump diminished support for Ukraine by berating President Zelensky and allowing military shipments to be halted. He threatened funding cuts for independent Russian-language media and has gradually eased sanctions on Russia. Senators warned that his inaction fosters increased Russian power and Ukrainian vulnerability. Although these policy changes are not widely noted in the U.S., they are recognized in Russia, where the administration's stance has been positively received. Trump's desire for peace in Ukraine contrasts sharply with his inactivity on military and economic pressures against Russia.
"Every month he's spent in office without action has strengthened Putin's hand, weakened ours and undermined Ukraine's own efforts to bring an end to the war," Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren wrote in a joint statement.
Trump does say that he wants to end the war in Ukraine, and sometimes he also says that he is angry that Putin doesn't. But if the U.S. is not willing to use any economic, military, or political tools to help Ukraine, if Trump will not put any diplomatic pressure on Putin or any new sanctions on Russian resources, then the U.S. president's fond wish to be seen as a peacemaker can be safely ignored.
Many of these changes have gone almost unremarked on in the United States. But they are widely known in Russia. The administration's attacks on Zelensky, Europeans, and Voice of America have been celebrated on Russian television.
As a result, the Russian president has clearly made a calculation: Trump, to use the language he once hurled at Zelensky, has no cards.
Collection
[
|
...
]