President Donald Trump, earlier this week, announced something of a reset for the U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The White House announced, at an event with the secretary general of NATO, that it will make weapons available to Ukraine by selling them through NATO allies in Europe.
In addition, Trump announced a 50-day deadline before imposing secondary tariffs on countries that import oil from Russia, should Russia not agree to a ceasefire within that time.
Trump Changes Course in Ukraine
It’s a significant shift from how Trump discussed Ukraine on the campaign trail and in the opening months of his second presidency, when he initially promised to end the war on his first day and later appeared to be putting more pressure on Ukraine than on Russia.
For a time, it appeared that the White House was wanting to disengage from the question altogether, with the Vatican floated as a potential host of peace talks, before the actual, short-lived discussions took place in Istanbul.
However, that was before Trump lost patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not played along with peace overtures, whether directed from the U.S. or elsewhere.
Will that change, now that the U.S. has given Ukraine new weapons and placed new pressure on Russia to make a deal?
The View From Moscow
Russia has not indicated, at least in the early going, that it’s interested in bowing to pressure.
Per The Moscow Times, Russian officials were “dismissive” of the threats from Washington, although Vladimir Putin himself has not yet weighed in.
“We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington, and if and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will comment on it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“One thing is clear for now: it seems that decisions made in Washington, in NATO countries and directly in Brussels are not being seen by the Ukrainian side as a signal for peace, but rather as a signal to continue the war.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, mocked the new threats from the White House, on X.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin,” Medvedev said in the post. “The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
What Happens in 50 Days?
The question will be, what happens after the 50-day deadline?
Russia, since the start of the war, has faced countless sanctions, including on its ability to sell oil, and it hasn’t backed down. It’s not clear whether such a new sanction would be any different.
So if Russia fails to move towards a ceasefire, it would put Trump in a position to double down, get more weapons to Ukraine, and become further enmeshed in a war that he promised to end on his first day in office.
Then again, Trump’s deadlines and threats, especially when it comes to tariffs, have tended to be flexible and subject to backing down.
What Will the Russia Hawks Say?
Meanwhile, CNN reported this week about a “new dilemma” faced by Russia hawks, who are welcoming the new weapons to Ukraine, but are somewhat skeptical about what a final settlement might look like.
“The Russians have basically shrugged it off and even treated it as a green light to take what they can in the next several weeks. Ukrainians and foreign leaders have expressed fears about what happens over the next 50 days,” CNN said of the pressure. “And even some Trump allies in Congress and elsewhere are wondering: Why the delay? Why not pass the sanctions legislation that more than 80 senators already support today?”
“I don’t know why he gave him that many days. From my standpoint, I think Trump’s being very generous,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I would love there to be sanctions now. I’d love there to be tariffs now.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
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, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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Jim
July 16, 2025 at 1:58 pm
He sure does. Six months in to his term of office and the war is still going and he’s authorizing more weapons via Nato financing.
Was Putin right about Ukraine being a Nato expansion project up to the Russian border using a regime which violently overthrew the duly-elected president and instituted a police-state with a decidedly anti-Russian ideology based on Stepan Bandera’s hyper-chauvinism.
Russia is conducting an operation to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 status of neutrality, and equal rights for all non-Stepan Bandera citizens (Russian-speakers with cultural affinities for Russian heritage), and a small-sized constabulary military.
Face it, in 2014. Stepan Bandera hyper-chauvinists engaged in a bloody, violent overthrow of the democratic president and gradually instituted a police-state prior to imposition of martial law upon the Feb. ’22 invasion.
Ukraine isn’t a democracy and should go back to its pre-2014 status. Everything that’s happened post the 2014 coup is the fruit of the poisonous tree and shouldn’t be accepted by the Community of Nations, including the U. S.
Yes, it’s Trump’s war, now.
What will he do? Likely drag it out because he doesn’t have the intellectual strength to repudiate the warhawks in Washington who were in on this nasty regime change business without ever telling the American people.
A winner could.
But he won’t.
Robert Discher
July 16, 2025 at 7:08 pm
In your dreams. This president excels at not taking any blame, deflection and dropping things. Sorry, you won’t be able to stick him.
Swamplaw Yankee
July 17, 2025 at 5:12 am
The times are set by MAGA POTUS Trump for the Han CCP Zi soldier/Hardware invasion of Christian Ukraine. The USA MAGA POTUS will do zip in 50 days as the orc dictator does everything to steal Ukrainian land and butcher families.
Medvedev sketched the MAGA Trump correctly: the inability to self-comprehend that he, Trump, is incapable of Western style leadership and, also, on the world stage showing off his mental incapacity. This is Shakespearean tragedy of 50 days as the battle for Kyiv is now staged + set up by Trump’s madness. The Yankee’s so like to note + speak of the madness of King George centuries back. This madness is fully developing on stage, killing Ukrainian fathers by the minute and totally ignored by the Yankee mass of humanity. Nothing here, doctor.
The MSM finally use the green light analogy. In 2014 marxist POTUS Obamas unilaterally greenlighted the free, no-cost giveaway of the geopolitical advantage of the WEST in owning the Ukrainian Crimea and the Black/Azov sea zones to the prime vile cold war enemy of the WEST: Putin. The decades of cold war effort by many POTUS personalities to hem in the Communist dictators was covertly betrayed by a wannabee marxist who blatantly used colour as a card to stuff the gullets of the Yankee voter.
There is zero evidence that Obama had any other intention in 2014 than of a complete betrayal of the WEST and the US allies as his motive. Did any Democrat dare in 2014 to raise the alarm on this world class betrayal? That the Ukrainian children would be mass “harvested” by the waiting Putin “Little green groomer” military for sexual servitude in moscow was of no concern in the USA. Show the proof! The anti-marxist Ukrainian children were just white kids anyway. -30-