It seems to be dawning on the US president that the obstacle to his ambition to end the Ukraine war resides not in Kyiv, but the Kremlin
Donald Trump’s plan for a swift end to the Ukraine war has come to nothing Credit: Leah Millis/REUTERS
David Blair Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator
02 May 2025
Day by day, the evidence mounts that Donald Trump is rethinking American policy towards Ukraine. His ambition to put a swift end to the war has come to nothing, but the crucial change is that he may at last be realising that Vladimir Putin is chiefly responsible for thwarting his efforts.
As long ago as March 11, Mr Trump proposed an immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Ukraine said yes; Russia did not. While Steve Witkoff, the US envoy, received friendly welcomes in Moscow, Putin would only consider a limited ceasefire – provided that new conditions were met.
This week, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, simply repeated all of Russia’s maximum demands, including the absurd notions that Ukraine must be forced to “demilitarise” and “de-Nazify”.
While talking to the Americans, Putin has carried on bombarding Ukraine’s cities, defying all of Mr Trump’s pleas for him to stop, including by firing ballistic missiles at the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday, killing at least 36 people.
This time, Mr Trump has voiced frustration with Putin not just with angry social media posts but real actions. On Wednesday he released $50 million of weapons for Ukraine, hours after the agreement was signed for the joint exploitation of the country’s critical minerals.
The State Department has now signalled that America will step back from its efforts to settle the conflict. “We are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings: that it is now between the two parties,” said an official spokesman on Friday. “It’s going to be up to them.”
The sudden removal of Mike Waltz as national security adviser can also be interpreted as fitting this direction of travel. True, Mr Waltz held hawkish views on Russia: as recently as Monday, he was advising the president to impose tough sanctions on Putin unless there was a swift ceasefire.
But dispensing with a hawk who was viewed with deep suspicion by his political base might give Mr Trump the cover he needs to change course and, paradoxically, move towards the policy which his former national security adviser was recommending.
All of this could still amount to wishful thinking and Mr Trump is perfectly capable of changing his mind instantaneously. But his conciliatory meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican last Saturday might just have been a turning point.
It seems to be dawning on Mr Trump that the obstacle to his burning ambition to pull off the ultimate deal to end the bloodshed in Ukraine resides not in Kyiv, but the Kremlin.
Two vital tests will show whether US policy really has changed. Will this week’s $50 million consignment of arms for Ukraine be followed by more American military supplies? And will Mr Trump support the bill proposed by Lindsey Graham, a Republican Senator, that would impose punitive sanctions on Russia? It will soon be clear whether Putin has somehow managed to alienate Mr Trump.
Comment from :
Richard Denton
I hope and prey that the Trump administration do relialise that the Russian dictator is a threat to not only their neighbours but all freedom loving people. Putin calculated that Ukraine would just fold when he started his “3 day” SMO. He would then move on to his next victim (probably Moldova) then continue until he had reestabished a Russian Empire. History will show that halting Putin and his Imperial ambtions saved much of Europe from a new dark age.
Ciaran Caughey
Total nonsense ! He sacks a hawk to become a hawk? Really?! The Trump camp detests Zelensky and have absolutely no interest in Ukraine!
Carol Snart
Reply to Ciaran Caughey
So how come Trump has signed a deal with Zelenskyy to jointly extract the rare minerals the US needs to circumvent China?
Chris George
So is he now going to follow Biden’s tack and supply the weapons Ukraine needs to drive Putin back?
Scott Driver
The charade is OVER Vlad. Trump’s on to you comrade, you and your blowhard mouthpiece Lavrov.
Simon Reeve
Reply to Scott Driver –
Took him long enough to see that he was being played, despite it being so obvious to the rest of the world it was getting cringeworthy. Still, I hope he actually follows through and does something about it now… “Hell hath no fury like a narcissist scorned” 😏
Bad Looking Rooster
Reply to Simon Reeve
Not convinced it is quite like this yet. The grand chess master hasn’t DONE anything material yet to support Ukraine and to oppose Russia. Still think Vlad has something rather special on Old Bone Spur.
Simon Reeve
India have pretty much single-handedly undermined the free-world’s attempts to curb Russian aggression via sanctions. In terms of “picking up the slack” they are even worse than China, Africa and the Middle East. Here’s a graph illustrating it, note how the yellow section goes from a slither in 2021 to the second largest in 2024: https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/average-russian-oil-exports-by-country-and-region-2021-2024
Ron Thompson
“he may at last be realising that Vladimir Putin is… responsible”
Took him long enough. The rest of us knew that the second Russian tanks piled across the border.
All the stalling and victim-blaming are just standard Kremlin tactics to keep murdering innocent Ukrainians.
Trump’s been backing the wrong horse.
Arm Ukraine to the teeth and squeeze Russia with sanctions until they withdraw from all of Ukraine.
Jonathan Green
If you believe, as David Blair evidently does, that the Russians’ desire to have a neutral or at least a non-hostile Ukraine on its vulnerable southern border is “absurd,” then you will naturally look for signs that Donald Trump now sees Vladimir Putin as the sole obstacle to the US President’s one-size-fits-all panacea – an unconditional 30 day ceasefire – to end the war. Time will tell whether or not Trump takes that view. If he does, he may be setting himself for another forever war, which is unlikely to have greater success than Joe Biden achieved over the preceding three years.
Simon Reeve
Reply to Jonathan Green –
Ukraine was neutral, was non-hostile, and wasn’t planning to join NATO until Russia started invading them! If NATO membership was actually the issue, Vladolf Putler should have just honoured the Budapest Memorandum where Russia swore to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at the internationally recognised borders. Again, that argument is fundamentally flawed because Russia already had what they try to pretend they want to get, and would still have it if they just honoured the treaties they’d already agreed to.
Ron Thompson
Reply to Jonathan Green
“Russians’ desire to have a neutral or at least a non-hostile Ukraine on its vulnerable southern border”
There was zero chance of anyone invading Russia before Putin invaded Ukraine.
Russia doesn’t want a neutral Ukraine, nor even a neutered Ukraine.
It wants to destroy Ukraine, its culture, identity and history, and relegate it to the status of a nondescript region of Russia.
Then it will be Moldova’s turn for the same treatment.
Dilip Balamore
Reply to Ron Thompson
You are absolutely right. Trump seems to have known this in his first term when he repeatedly warned Germany from becoming dependent on Russian gas and oil.
During the Cold War the apologists for the USSR used to claim that their atrocities were owing to their fear of the West. A convenient excuse.
Nicholas Hilliard
In short Russia has made Trump look weak, easily manipulated and ineffective. Russia has constantly said one thing to the US and then done the exact opposite. While Trump has threatened consequences for Russia – he has not actually done anything so they now look like empty threats.
Let’s hope Trump realises what has happened and finally applies some real pressure to Russia. Russia is not going to stop its war in Ukraine unless it is forced to. So for the War to end, the US needs to break Russia.
Cool Hand
It’s nice to believe this, but the unfortunate fact remains that all evidence points to Trump being a Russian asset – or at least Putin having something on him.
Nothing that has happened in the first 100 days can be explained otherwise: anyone in the possession of either eyes or a brain would have seen immediately that Putin is the issue, the aggressor, the threat, and the one that needs to be defeated.
Getting excited because Putins best ally, who sadly has captured the White House, has slightly changed tack: is absurd.
Clive Richardson
This whole thing is bizarre.
Trump sees Putin as being a lot like himself, therefore he was naturally drawn to him over – in his eyes – a pathetic-looking Zelensky.
Has Trump only now realised that Putin is murderous, Nazi scum? Better late than never.
The sad thing is, that if Europe and the US had acted as quickly and decisively as Boris (despite his many other faults), not been taken in by Putin’s Nuclear threats, given Ukraine all the weapons it needed, with no restrictions on usage, and finally, actually applied all financial sanctions possible (they still haven’t) then Russia would have lost the war within six months, and Putin would be hanging by his testicles upside down from a tree.
Carpe Jugulum
I am not remotely a fan of Trump but he has at least poked a stilletto into Russia’s giblets. Ukraine has huge reserves of shale gas and the American shale gas companies will be helping Ukraine exploit them. Those deposits will more than satisfy EU demand ending Russian gas exports to the EU permanently.
Tough luck Putin. Another debacle to add to the very long list.
Scott Driver
“This time, Mr Trump has voiced frustration with Putin not just with angry social media posts but real actions. On Wednesday he released $50 million of weapons for Ukraine, hours after the agreement was signed for the joint exploitation of the country’s critical minerals.”
Excellent, and way past time that Trump woke up to Mad Vlad’s lowlife scumbag terror shenanigan tendencies that he’s been engaged in since the beginning of the war.
Targeting civilians seems to be something that Trump originally thought Vlad engaged in only very recently, while its actually on page 1 of the Kremlin war terror handbook and been part of their daily activities since day 1 of this war.
I hope that this and other journalists, politicians and others who see a more hawkish Trump are right.
I will wait and see until rhetoric is backed up with action.
Commenter Clive Richardson asks :
“Has Trump only now realised that Putin is murderous, Nazi scum?”
I fear that he’s known that inescapable fact all along, but just doesn’t care……