Another week, another flip-flop from Donald Trump on Ukraine. Last month the US president declared that Ukraine could regain all the land lost since the 2022 invasion (“Why not?”) adding that Russia had been fighting “aimlessly” and was in “BIG economic trouble”. But after a two-and-a-half hour phone call with Vladimir Putin, Trump swung back to Moscow-friendly talking points. “Let it be cut the way it is,” he said, referring to Ukrainian territory.
Behind the scenes it was even worse. In a tense meeting at the White House last Friday Trump urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up swathes of territory to Russia, telling him “your country will be destroyed” unless he made a deal with Russia. Ukraine also failed to secure the US Tomahawk missiles Zelenskyy had hoped for.
