The US President has long warned he would use the vast leverage he has to pressure his Russian counterpart to end the war in Ukraine but has so far failed to do so

Radina Gigova

US President Donald Trump has once again expressed his anger with Vladimir Putin over his unwillingness to engage in serious talks to end the war in Ukraine and his continued deadly attacks on its cities.

But those remarks were just the latest example of Trump’s growing frustration with the Russian President — frustration that, so far, has resulted in little action.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump admitted he had been misled by Putin. “We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” he told reporters. “He’s always very nice, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

Trump added that he was now open to a bipartisan Senate plan to sanction Russian oil exports and has overturned a Pentagon decision to delay critical weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

“Putin isn’t treating people like human beings — he’s killing far too many,” Trump said. “So we’re sending defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve given the go-ahead.”

But instead of taking note of Trump’s remarks, Putin unleashed hundreds of drones on Ukraine — in what Kyiv described as the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of its invasion.

The colossal aerial assault involved 728 drones and 13 missiles, eclipsing the previous record number of 539 drones, set on 4 July, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

“This is a demonstrative attack, and it comes at a time when there have been so many attempts to achieve peace and ceasefire, but Russia rejects everything,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.

“Our partners know how to apply pressure so that Russia will be forced to think about ending the war, not new strikes. Everyone who wants peace must act.”

Trump claims he threatened to bomb Moscow

One wholly unexpected lever Trump claimed he had at his disposal to ramp up pressure on Putin in leaked audio is — apparently — bombing the Russian capital.

An audio recording has emerged from Trump’s election campaign, in which during a private gathering of donors he can apparently be heard threatening to “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow,” if Putin did not end his war.

“With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice,” Trump said during one 2024 fundraiser, according to the audio exclusively released to CNN. “And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10 per cent.”

Trump later said he gave a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, stating that the US would bomb Beijing if China moved to invade Taiwan. “He thought I was crazy,” Trump said of Xi’s reaction, adding: “We never had a problem.”

However, analysts have cautioned against taking Trump’s remarks literally.

“We should be careful about taking Trump’s statements too seriously,” said Anders Puck Nielsen, a military analyst based in Denmark.

“He has several times before indicated that his patience with Russia was running out, but it has so far not materialised into action. At best, Trump has indicated a willingness to continue the deliveries of weapons approved during the Biden administration, and that is going to gradually taper off.”

“The trend is that American support for Ukraine is declining,” Nielsen pointed out. “It is, of course, good if Trump is beginning to understand that Putin is not looking to end the war, but it has taken him an inordinate amount of time to come to that realisation,” he said.

“And he does not seem willing to deliver the offensive weapons to Ukraine that would be required to put Russia under serious pressure. Some people thought Trump would be tougher than his predecessor and more willing to put Russia under pressure to end the war, but he has actually turned out to be even more submissive than Biden. And I don’t think we should expect that to change.”

‘We’ve been here before’

There are “plenty of things Trump could do” to pressure Putin, but so far he has failed to implement them, said John Foreman, associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London and former UK defence attaché to Moscow.

They include supplying more weapons, instead of “half turn the tap back,” reducing the oil price cap via the G7, implementing new sanctions against Russia and its cronies, and even implementing “a no-fly zone over parts of Ukraine,” Foreman said.

“We’ve been here before when his irritation about the lack of progress in peace talks didn’t lead to concrete new action,” said Foreman.

“Trump has been pretty consistent on Russia for a decade. He’s all carrot, no stick. He blames both sides and regards it as not a massive issue for the US. He tries to use reason with Russia to achieve peace and a better bilateral relationship. Russia only respects the logic of force,” he said.

Foreman pointed out that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff “is still promoting improved trade links between the US and Russia”, while Trump “doesn’t want to be seen to fail in bringing peace — that’s why the US backed away from the last round of talks.”

“Call me sceptical, but I’m not convinced he’s now going to change his approach dramatically. I see a lot of wishful thinking,” he said. “Even his decision on arms was half-hearted.”

Diplomatic means ‘exhausted’

The mood on the ground in Ukraine echoes Nielsen’s remarks. “People are deservably sceptical, and the big reason is hours after Trump’s threats were made, Kyiv was under attack once again,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Centre and former spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“Ukrainians, after three-plus years of war, are pretty sceptical that things may change any time quickly,” he said from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

Meanwhile, German Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday that the diplomatic means for resolving the war are “exhausted,” but Berlin will continue to support Kyiv.

When asked on Tuesday to explain Trump’s approach to dealing with Putin, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Trump is “an open-minded man, but he’s not naive.”

“He is principled and clear in what he wants to achieve. That’s what we’re seeing,” she added.

Trump ‘threatened to bomb Moscow’ – in reality, he’s afraid to hurt Putin