Shift in Trump’s stance on Ukraine war begins — diplomat

Volodymyr Ohryzko, diplomat and head of the Center for Russian Studies, said this on Espreso TV.

"Despite his great sympathy for Putin, Trump agreed to language that recognizes that Russia will remain a long-term threat to all members of the Alliance, including Trump himself. This indicates a certain shift in his mind, a certain rethinking of what Russia is," Ohryzko said.

According to the diplomat, for the first time in all these meetings, there was no public criticism of Zelenskyy by Trump. Zelenskyy has already “become a nice guy,” and their conversation was “nice.” They apparently drew conclusions from the unpleasant conversation in the Oval Office on February 28 this year, when everything was on camera. Yesterday, June 25, during the NATO summit, the meeting was private.

"It's a good thing there was no press conference after the meeting, because it could have ruined everything. And it was the right decision. Everyone said their own thing: Trump said it was a nice conversation, that Zelenskyy was a good guy. Zelensky emphasized that they had discussed a large number of issues that were important to us. That is, everything was written down like a note. And that's why Trump is now likely to move towards a better understanding of Ukraine's position," Ohryzko said.

The diplomat also noted that Trump recognized the difficulties with Patriot systems. At the same time, there is information that five such systems are already being discussed, which, according to Ohryzko, could be a huge help for Ukraine.

"It is clear that this will be for money, possibly at the expense of frozen Russian assets. But the main thing is that a certain process of a positive shift in Trump's assessments of events in Ukraine has begun. And this, in my opinion, is not bad," Ohryzko summarized.

• U.S. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on June 25 during the NATO summit in The Hague.