There’s a new sheriff in town, ladies and gentlemen, a who doesn’t get properly to foreign bullies— and one of those bullies has now changed his tune. Or at least Russian strongman Vladimir Putin wants the world ( and President Donald Trump ) to suppose he has.
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Speaking of harmony with Ukraine, Putin said in the hours quickly following Trump’s swearing-in:” The aim should not be a temporary peace, a short-term wait for regrouping forces and stationing to maintain the conflict afterwards, but a lasting peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people and nations living in the region. “
Those worse don’t exactly jibe with Putin’s Biden-era dismissals of Ukraine’s sovereignty and right to exist as an independent nation.
Famously — or perhaps infamously, depending on who you ask — Trump claims to have kept the peace during his first administration by warning Putin, “We’re gonna hit Moscow” if he invaded Ukraine. Trump later told his golfing buddy, John Daly, that Putin” sort of believed me, like 5 %, 10 %,” but” that’s all you need. “
Once the bullets start flying, not to mention the drones, making peace is a helluva lot more difficult than merely maintaining it. Trump began that process within a week of his reelection last fall. Â
According to a report in the Nov. 10 edition of the Washington Post that I covered then, Trump and Putin spoke for about 20 minutes just two days after Trump’s reelection. ” During the call,” the paper reported, Trump “advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington ’s sizable military presence in Europe. ” That’s according to the usual “person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “
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The usual “people familiar with the matter” inside the Trump camp also told WaPo, “Ukrainian officials have been informed of the Putin call and did not object to the conversation taking place, said two people familiar with the matter. Ukrainian officials have long understood that Trump would engage with Putin on a diplomatic solution to the war. “
Battlespace realities should also help bring both sides to the peace table. It’s probably correct to conclude, as the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard did last month, that although “Ukraine is slowly losing the three-year conflict on the battlefield. Russia is slowly losing the economic conflict at a roughly equal pace. ” The Russian military spent 2024 pushing Ukraine hard, likely hoping to bring the war to a successful conclusion before the U. S. election — but at a horrifying cost in blood and treasure.
Although it angered certain readers here, Trump’s decision in December to continue military aid to Ukraine signals to Putin that there will be no successful conclusion, while the risks to Russia’s economy ( and Putin’s hide ) increase. However, continued aid to Ukraine won’t solve that country’s manpower shortages or soothe the people’s growing war fatigue.
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What a great time then to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
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