Yuri Kobzar23:56, 16.05.25

Whatever circus Putin puts on, the US president remains clearly sympathetic to the Russian dictator.

European officials doubt that the US president will even dare to impose new sanctions against Russia , no matter how much the Kremlin arranges, torpedoing peace talks, Bloomberg reports, citing private conversations between European officials.

The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the UK, along with the president of Ukraine, held a joint phone call with Donald Trump today to discuss the next steps after Russia’s diplomatic circus in Turkey. In the call, the Europeans expressed their disappointment with the results of the Istanbul talks to the US president, but it remains unclear whether they managed to persuade Trump to take a tougher approach towards Russia and its dictator.

The publication notes that a week ago, the United States and Europe seemed to be on the same page, issuing an ultimatum to Putin: either an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or new large-scale sanctions against Russia. However, when the Kremlin began to resist, first proposing talks in Turkey instead of a ceasefire, and then disrupting the talks themselves, Trump reacted condescendingly each time.

Publicly, the Europeans are sticking to their line that sanctions will be imposed if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire. But privately, European officials are frustrated and confused by Trump’s apparent continued avoidance of tougher action on Russia. 

According to Bloomberg, some Europeans still believe that the US president will follow through on previous threats and impose new banking sanctions against Russia and push through Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill on secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil. In particular, according to informed interlocutors, US officials who met with their European counterparts in Turkey this week confirmed their readiness to impose new sanctions against Russia.

Others, however, are skeptical and do not believe Trump is interested in imposing the sanctions proposed by Graham. In doing so, European officials point to their American counterparts, who have made it clear that any decision on next steps should be made by Trump.

And here lies the problem. The US president’s only public reaction to the breakdown of the talks in Istanbul was not a confirmation of the promise to impose sanctions, but an expressed desire to call Putin and even meet with him.

Negotiations in Istanbul: latest news

As UNIAN wrote, during today’s negotiations in Istanbul, the Russian delegation voiced previously unacceptable demands to Ukraine – to give the Russians all the territories that they included in their constitution.

At the same time, the Russians threatened to take other eastern regions of Ukraine by force if it continued to resist. The Russian delegation also voiced Russia’s readiness to fight “forever.”

Some observers saw these negotiations as a diplomatic victory for Putin , as he avoided the need to halt hostilities, but was not punished for it and even received a promise from Trump for a personal meeting as a reward.

(c)UNIAN 2025