President Donald Trump’s abrupt shift on the war in Ukraine this week came amid fresh frustration at Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was intended to apply more pressure on Moscow to come to the negotiating table, according to US officials.
By publicly declaring Ukraine could regain all its territory — a position few NATO leaders share, at least without a dramatic shift in the battlefield dynamics — Trump hopes to jumpstart the process of getting the two sides to a peace deal, the officials said.
Whether Trump’s new stance actually results in a new round of talks remains to be seen. Neither the president nor top officials previewed any imminent new steps from the United States, such as more sanctions on Russia or massive new military aid for Ukraine, that might help shift the trajectory of the war.
And among several European officials, the president’s new position was interpreted as less of a show of solidarity and more as a way to distance himself from the war altogether. Many pointed out that the economic conditions Trump cited in his Tuesday Truth Social post have been true for months.
“In any event, I wish both Countries well,” Trump wrote in his message.
The US president has in recent days grown more upset, both in public and private, that Putin hasn’t agreed to meet for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after suggesting he was open to it during his summit with Trump in Alaska last month.
And Trump has been acknowledging that the war in Ukraine has been harder to resolve than he expected — a rare admission for a president usually loathe to concede he was wrong.
While Trump’s position on who is to blame for the war has swung like a pendulum between Putin and Zelensky, he now appears stung that his personal relationship with the Russian leader hasn’t yielded progress in ending the war.
But aside from his public shift in position, Trump has stopped short of taking steps that might make a difference on the ground.
The president remains adamant that new US sanctions on Moscow won’t happen until European nations cut off their purchases of Russian energy.
And he has not previewed any major new military assistance, touting instead his new system where NATO nations purchase American equipment that is then shipped to Ukraine.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
