Miracles, evidently, do happen. President Donald Trump just announced that the United States will supply Ukraine with “billions and billions” of weaponry paid for by Europe. His Oval Office interlocutor, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, followed up by saying that Ukraine would get “massive numbers of military equipment.”
Upping the ante, Trump also vowed to increase secondary tariffs on Russian exports if Russia’s illegitimate president fails to end the war in 50 days.
A Bombshell Announcement by President Trump on the Ukraine War
Though expected for several days, the announcement is a bombshell for several reasons.
First, consider the optics: Trump and Rutte, America and NATO, the organization that has been the target of multiple Trump administration criticisms, so much so that some have even suggested the United States might abandon the alliance.
Mutually supporting Ukraine may only be a temporary détente—or it may herald a return to a more amicable relationship, which would be bad news for Russia.
Second, Trump and Europe appear to have found a way of supporting Ukraine that benefits all concerned. The Ukrainians win by getting weapons; the Europeans win by supporting Ukraine; the Americans win by getting paid for the weapons concerned. The only loser is Vladimir Putin.
Third, the United States and Europe have signaled to Putin that they will not abandon Ukraine to his genocidal designs. Indeed, Western assistance may even suffice for Ukraine to stop, and possibly even reverse, Russia’s incremental territorial gains, which have thus far cost it over a million dead and wounded.
More bad news for Russia.
Fourth, stopping Russia’s advance means undermining Putin and his regime. The Russian dictator has so thoroughly identified himself as well as his political and natural life with the war that anything short of a smashing victory would be an embarrassing defeat that could undermine his legitimacy and provoke a coup. With the economy on the brink of collapse, don’t be too shocked if Putin exits the Kremlin this year.
Fifth, stopping Putin is the only way of getting him to agree to anything resembling a ceasefire or peace. Not because he will have gotten religion, but because some kind of peace would be the only way he could keep his enemies at bay and salvage his throne. Kremlin infighting will intensify: more bad news for Russia.
Sixth, increased Western weapons deliveries will be an enormous morale boost for Ukraine’s resilient, but tired and somewhat demoralized population. Ukrainians feared being abandoned by the West. That fear may have become irrelevant now. Expect Ukraine’s fighting spirit to increase, a prospect that will only depress Russians, especially those dying needlessly on the front.
Finally, Western assistance means that Russia’s slaughter of Ukrainian civilians will diminish while Ukraine’s chances of surviving, and perhaps even of prevailing, will have markedly improved—which would be bad news for Putin and for Russia.
The End Of Putin?
The challenge before the Trump administration is simple: it must stick to its guns and treat the 50-day deadline seriously. Moreover, it must be ready to impose all the tariffs when—not if—Putin fails to agree to a peace.
At that point, if Russia’s elites realize that Putin can’t win, they may decide to get rid of him and consider ending his murderous war. But for such a miraculous turn of events to be possible, President Trump will have to stay the course and not blink, not even once.
About the Author: Dr. Alexander Motyl
Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, including Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000) and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to academic and policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He also has a weekly blog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”
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D-O-Y-L-E
July 14, 2025 at 4:08 pm
Putin must go. He’s finished.
If Putin is still allowed to stick around, Russia is surely finished. Surely kaput. Dead.
Now, today, 2025, is the time and the final moment for Russia to end the conflict in Donbass.
By liberally employing all-out full use of nukes. Against the nazis.
If the big megalomaniacs were to make any sudden, real and nasty evil threat, just nuke taipei.
They’ll swivel lightningly fast right to over there, and problem solved. No more threat.
But Putin is unable to see the forest because he sees only the tree right in front of him. He needs to go. Now.
Russia today is still surviving in the fight against the dreaded nazis, solely or wholly due to the help given or provided by north Korea (and iran).
But does Putin understand even that very basic fact. Sadly, no. Not at all. Putin needs to go.
The conflict in Donbass must END this year. Through use of nukes.
404NotFound
July 14, 2025 at 5:12 pm
Vladimir vladimirovich is today now russia’s numero uno enemy. Or numero uno traitor.
In feb 2022, putin failed to do what anyone who’s studied the way of war would immediately do. When confronted by the threat of revitalised fascism.
Stifle the deadly fascist threat by going STRAIGHT for the jugular.
Of course a mistake Once made can’t be undone unfortunately.
Yet today, putin is still repeating that earlier ghastly totally horribly dumb mistake.
2025 is the time for erasing the big mistake of 2022.
Wipe out the fascists completely by going for the jugular. Now, today.
But outin’s not budging.
TRAITOR !
Jim
July 15, 2025 at 10:59 am
Hope grows eternal and so war supporters have new hope.
But weapons & money never stopped and yet Russia continues to advance, albeit slowly, in small unit actions (six to nine soldiers) against undermanned trenches. Kiev’s lines at the front are overstretched because of a shortage of manpower. (Often Kiev’s trenches are manned by five or six soldiers where there should be 15 to 20 soldiers.)
So, I’ll acknowledge the war continues until Kiev puts down their arms.
And so if past is prologue, the war will continue until Kiev literally looks like Nazi Germany at the fall of Berlin with young boys & old men fighting and dying.
An interesting note: the last two months of the war before Berlin fell produced incredible casualty figures for Germany.
Expect the same for Kiev.
Towards the end, there are always fanciful notions about “reverses” and “game changers” which will change the inexorable outcome staring them in the face.
These are the fantasies of an animal trapped in a corner on the verge of confronting its end.
What’s so bad about neutrality? After all, Ukraine was neutral per their constitution from 1996 to 2014 and the bloody, violent overthrow of the democratically elected president.
The Stepan Bandera hyper-chauvinists who took power and gradually instituted a police-state have obviously ruined Ukraine and need to be removed from power.
Ukraine had a small constabulary sized military from 1996 to 2014 which worked well for a country at peace with their neighbors.
These are the three conditions demanded by Russia, plus the territorial annexations gained since the start of the invasion in February 2022.
Wars have consequences… Kiev will face the music with its back against the wall.
But Kiev could still go back to its pre-coup neutral status with roughly 80% of its territory intact.
What’s so bad about that?