Elbahrain.net US President Donald Trump on Ukraine are a little disorganized, convoluted, and occasionally misguided. However, do not doubt that it exists and appears to be an unexpected priority. During his first week in office, Trump’s approach to Ukraine stands apart in two ways. His constant criticism of the Kremlin head’s economic harm to Russia is the first. By urging Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must reach a peace agreement for economic reasons, Trump is presenting a commercial case for it. According to Russian propagandists, this could misinterpret Putin’s almost compulsive dedication to winning as well as the confl
ict’s vast existential significance for Moscow. They regard this as a battle they have to win against NATO as a whole. It is possible to both turn off and turn on the Russian official media’s propaganda taps. However, the mentality of Russia is more radicalized than that of the West. The Kremlin’s argument is one of survival rather than quarterly profit and loss.
Once more, Trump is addressing the dispute from a position of comfort, where everyone wants a simple agreement that will increase their wealth. China might want peace and eventually wish the war in Ukraine had never started. However, that is not the current situation; rather, Xi Jinping is witnessing his friend Moscow deteriorate their economy and military to the point where they are now Beijing’s junior partner, while also realizing that Russia cannot lose the war without having an adverse effect on China’s aspirations worldwide.
The calculations made now by America’s adversaries concern the world order over the coming decade, not the immediate telephone call sheet of the White House, or how fast slick interpersonal dealings might wrap up the biggest land conflict in Europe since the 1940s.
Trump’s repeated call for NATO’s European members to pay more for defense – an unlikely demand of 2% of GDP rising to 5% – has even been echoed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It is correct to state this is Europe’s war. If Kyiv loses, Poland, the Baltics, Romania and Moldova will feel the heat, not Florida or California. Even NATO’s head, Mark Rutte, has suggested Europe might buy arms for Ukraine from the United States. Trump was always going to challenge the cost of the war to Washington, and speedily Europe is being backed into a corner to step up.
It is also intriguing to see Trump talk of the damage the war has done. He said incorrectly Thursday millions had died on both sides. Kyiv has said 43,000 Ukrainian troops have died. The UN says about 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have died.
Western officials say regularly Russia’s losses amount to 700,000 dead and injured, and independent media have tracked nearly 100,000 public records that suggest Russian military deaths on the battlefield.
Yet Trump’s incorrect, emotional reference to millions may be aimed at evoking the urgency and horror of the war in the minds of an American audience for whom it is a side issue rarely discussed.
Trump said he could bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, which was always a wild rhetorical exaggeration. Even the six months now evoked is optimistic. But he has taken office seized with a wobbly yet vivid grasp of the war’s issues. That may falter, as he slowly realizes a deal is not low hanging fruit and his adversaries – because that is what Putin is, however “great” Trump says they get along – are more patient, enduring and conniving than he is.
But his opening week has done much to dispel the greater fear from Ukraine and its allies that Trump preferred coziness with Putin to NATO’s unity. Or that his wild and unrealistic promises of diplomacy from the campaign trail would evaporate – along with funding for the war – the moment he came to office. This may all still happen, and the road ahead for Trump is deeply complex and fraught with rivals who have years more experience in the job, and much more to lose or gain.
But Trump is seized of the issue, has an emotional albeit shaky grasp of the war’s horrors, and is critical of, not fawning towards, Putin. It’s yet another unforeseen turn in a conflict ruled by the unexpected.
