Trump is willing to side with Ukraine

However, it is important to note that in this interview, Trump is not stating a fact but responding to a question from an American journalist about whether there could be a situation where he would side with Ukraine. He affirms that, yes, that could indeed happen.

Although, the journalist asks him whether he is ready to stand by Zelenskyy's side. There is a clarification from the American president: "Not necessarily on Zelensky’s side, but on Ukraine’s side, yes." It’s also worth remembering that this meeting between Donald Trump and the editor-in-chief of Atlantic took place before the American president met with his Ukrainian counterpart in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome during the funeral of Pope Francis.

Perhaps if the interview had been recorded after the meeting, which many describe as a form of reconciliation between Trump and Zelenskyy, the American president’s response might not have been so categorical and might not have specifically referenced the Ukrainian president. As it stands, Donald Trump focused not so much on aid to Ukraine but on the details of the meeting in the Oval Office. He continues to place the blame for its breakdown squarely on the behavior of the Ukrainian president.

At the same time, Trump insisted that he is saving Ukraine. In response to a question about why, unlike his predecessors, such as Ronald Reagan, whose portrait hung during the interview with the journalists, he does not feel empathy for smaller countries that are attacked by larger ones, Trump emphasized that he does have such empathy. He reminded that he had been saving Ukraine from Russian aggression even before the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, consistently pointing to the provision of Javelin missiles to Ukraine for defense against Russian aggression.

So, it can be said that Donald Trump’s interview, in which he suggests the possibility of siding with Ukraine, reflects important trends in his own policy regarding the Russian-Ukrainian issue.

And that’s why it allows us to draw certain conclusions not based on the conversation that took place between Trump and Zelenskyy, but rather before that conversation. It suggests that Trump is frustrated by Putin’s stubbornness and by the Russian leader putting him in a difficult situation with his attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities, even before the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents spoke again following the famous Oval Office scandal.

Thus, we can say that currently, the U.S. president still doesn’t fully understand how he will be able to end the Russian-Ukrainian war within the time frame he initially thought would be sufficient to at least achieve a ceasefire on the Russian-Ukrainian front.

The first 100 days of President Trump’s administration showed that his efforts were, to put it mildly, insufficient to force the Russian leader to meet his American counterpart halfway. The main goal for Putin and his inner circle remains to keep Trump and his team engaged in negotiations, even as fighting continues on the Russian-Ukrainian front.

Fighting that, in Putin's view, could allow him to continue occupying more parts of Ukraine and impose new conditions that are not so much about a ceasefire on the Russian-Ukrainian front, but conditions for Ukraine’s surrender.

In this situation, it is important to recognize that Trump does not seem eager to become the person responsible for the deaths of innocent Ukrainians. The person who continues negotiations with Putin amidst new and ongoing crimes committed by the Russian leader and his criminal army.

And soon, the President of the United States will have to make a decision. This could happen even after the anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II, which Putin routinely turns into a grotesque display of “victory mania.” Trump will have to either realize that he truly must act as he told Atlantic journalists - by increasing support for Ukraine - or not. Notably, in that same answer, he mentioned that beyond military aid, the U.S. could impose more serious sanctions on Russia.

This, too, deserves analysis. It’s possible that Trump is thinking less about increasing military assistance and more about ramping up sanctions against Russia, without realizing, or perhaps fully realizing, that sanctions alone are unlikely to bring about a serious shift in Putin’s position. Alternatively, he may ultimately decide to pull the United States out of the negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine. If that decision coincides with a halt in military aid to Ukraine, it would only increase Russia’s chances of occupying more Ukrainian territory and continuing to demand Ukraine’s capitulation as the war drags on.

But it is clear that walking away from negotiations is unlikely to enhance the political standing of an American president who is concerned with his own authority - and who fully understands what the commentary will be like on the 100-day mark of his presidency if he has achieved no results in any of his foreign policy initiatives.

For Donald Trump, exiting the Russia-Ukraine talks would mean admitting not only to his own political impotence - already increasingly evident even to his supporters - but also to the impotence of the United States. That’s why, I believe, Trump will not withdraw from any negotiations.

Ukraine's task, however, is to make the American president realize that in these talks he must not be a neutral mediator, but a supporter of Ukraine - one who helps apply pressure on Russia and creates ever-tougher conditions for it to halt or end its war against Ukraine.

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About the author. Vitaly Portnikov, journalist, laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by blog or column authors.