“Trump likely hoped to either still win the Nobel Peace Prize or use the Budapest meeting and the possibility of a deal with Putin as a trump card in his negotiations with Xi, drawing Russia away from China, which he views as the United States’ main geopolitical rival. When that failed, when Putin outright ignored Trump’s position — Trump stepped in”, — write on: ua.news
Trump likely hoped to either still win the Nobel Peace Prize or use the Budapest meeting and the possibility of a deal with Putin as a trump card in his negotiations with Xi, drawing Russia away from China, which he views as the United States’ main geopolitical rival.
When that didn’t work, when Putin outright ignored Trump’s position, Trump took the position they’ve been told before: that if he sees that he can’t do anything, he’ll step aside and wait. The US president has set a new deadline, the same six months he told Putin about sanctions. During this period, he will wait for a new window of opportunity to resolve the situation. Unfortunately for Ukraine, this means that we find ourselves alone with Putin with very little support from Europe, which makes strong statements but does very little concretely…
That is why Putin is betting that he will achieve much more by military means than by political means. And if the state of affairs had been a little different, if there really hadn’t been the biggest advance of Russian troops in October, maybe it would have been a little more constructive. But, unfortunately, the situation is as it is. And Trump sees that neither Ukraine nor Russia has exhausted either human or material resources for the continuation of hostilities. Under such conditions, reaching a compromise is unlikely. That is why Trump gave the opportunity to continue fighting. And when you win, sit down at the negotiating table.
Unfortunately, this leaves little chance of the war ending any time soon. Most likely, 2026 will also be a year of war.
Andriy Zolotaryov