Key Points – President Trump’s recent shift in approaching the Ukraine war, including a direct call with Putin and talk of peace negotiations, is viewed by some as theatrical rather than substantive, with no immediate ceasefire or real concessions from either side.
-While Trump aims to project an image of a dealmaker ending the conflict, potentially sidelining Ukraine’s direct involvement, a true resolution requires acknowledging hard realities: Russia’s current battlefield position and Ukraine’s potentially unachievable maximalist war aims.
-A sustainable peace likely necessitates painful compromises from all parties, a process that demands strategic clarity and realistic expectations over performative diplomacy or wishful thinking about a total Ukrainian victory.
The Ukraine War Is Not Easy to Solve for Trump
While Donald Trump promised, numerous times on the campaign trail, that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine in his first 24 hours in office, that didn’t happen. Nor did the scenario envisioned by many anti-Trump partisans — that Trump would essentially give Ukraine to Vladimir Putin — come to pass either.
He may, in fact, have no idea how to solve the conflict and bring it to an end.
Instead, the war between Russia and Ukraine has continued, showing no signs of finishing up anytime soon, even as the sides agreed last week to a large prisoner exchange. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has made it clear that it would prefer to wash its hands of the situation, and has even tried to get the Vatican to oversee peace talks.
Meanwhile, while weapons for Ukraine approved during the Biden Administration are still making their way there, the Trump Administration has not approved any new military aid, and it’s unlikely that any more will be approved.
Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, famously upbraided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House in February, although more recently, Trump has spoken more negatively than ever before about Putin.
Now, there are signs that the war has entered a “new phase,” with Russia newly aggressive in the process.
Escalation
According to a New York Times report on Tuesday, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian cities, with “increasingly intense aerial bombardments” in recent days, in what’s seen as a reaction to the diplomatic process breaking down.
Per the Times, “scores of Russian drones swarmed the skies across Ukraine and bombers unleashed a heavy barrage of missiles against Ukrainian cities for the third straight night.” This led to the deaths of 30 people and more than 160 injuries.
An expert quoted by the Times weighed in on Russia’s latest actions.
“For the last three years, for both good and ill, the policy choices in Washington had played an active, at times determinative, role in shaping the course of the war,” Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Britain, told the Times. “The U.S. is slowly starving Ukraine of vital aid, which is very much understood and acted on by the Russians.”
Trump and Putin
Last week, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had what was reported as a two-hour phone call. This led to Trump making a rare public rebuke of his Russian counterpart, declaring that Putin had “gone absolutely crazy.”
“He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!,” Trump said in the Truth Social post, although he also took shots at Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, declaring that he was “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does” and that “everything out of his mouth causes problems.”
The Kremlin, for its part, denounced Trump as “emotional,” with Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, declaring that the comments were “connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved”.
For those who spent many years believing that Trump was overly solicitous to Putin, or who even believed in conspiracy theories that he was a longtime Russian agent, the exchange was somewhat shocking.
Trump took another shot at Putin on Sunday, per the Times.
“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” the president said Sunday on Air Force One. “I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
“I hope there are no more people in this room who still believe in some kind of miracle or wonder — in a white swan that will bring peace to Ukraine, restore the 1991 or 2022 borders, and bring great happiness afterward,” Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain, said this week at a conference of arms dealers in Kyiv, per the Times.
About the Author
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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