Putin, Trump have no real power to shift current situation, says ex-Polish diplomat

Former Deputy Economy Minister of Poland and ex-secretary of the Polish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Piotr Kulpa, shared his opinions on Espreso TV.

“If we look at the U.S. relationship with Russia, Trump did everything to pull Putin out of isolation, using peace talks as a pretext. In reality, this weakens Ukraine’s position. Our luck is that Ukraine’s potential, its armed forces, and domestic defense industry democratize violence on the ground so strongly that the U.S. no longer has direct leverage over Ukraine,” commented Piotr Kulpa.

In his view, everything Trump does leads the U.S. into deep isolation because the world embraces cooperation without the United States. This is evident from America’s closest partners, such as Japan and South Korea. Europe also tries to keep a distance both from Trump’s policies and from China. Thus, a world is emerging where the United States is weakening.

"Russia is so weak that it is already in a state of hopelessness and irresponsibility. The attacks we see are a sign of this hopelessness; they cannot change anything. I will say more — the U.S. and the Trump administration are acting criminally because they equate the victim and the aggressor, pretending there is equivalence where there is none. First of all, this is ineffective. For example, at the beginning of 2024, Kherson had 78,000 residents, of whom about 1,500 were killed or injured. By the end of the year, the number of residents had grown to 98,000. This shows that such methods do not work — people are not scared. They try to organize “Days of Kharkiv,” “Days of Kherson” in Kyiv or other cities, but in reality, they will achieve “Days of Kherson” in Moscow. That’s how I see it, and it’s inevitable," emphasized the Polish expert.

According to him, all of Trump’s actions aimed at weakening Ukraine actually strengthen it, as well as Ukraine’s friends and their unity around supporting the country. On the other hand, actions not intended to do so weaken Russia, because the tariffs imposed by Trump lower expectations for global growth, reducing demand for energy resources. As a result, Russia faces economic decline and its largest deficit since Yeltsin’s time (President of Russia from 1991 to 1999 - ed.), forcing it to revise its budget at least once, possibly twice, this year.

“Thus, in this system, on one side, there is a criminal, bandit war. But one thing must be understood: Putin with or without Trump, Trump with or without Putin, cannot change anything because they are weak. Under Trump, the United States weakened so much that it can no longer establish peace,” Kulpa concluded.

• On June 7, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that, by carrying out the Spider's Web operation to destroy Russian aviation, Ukraine gave Russia a reason to bomb them.
• On June 12, Donald Trump expressed disappointment with both Russia and Ukraine, as the deal has still not been reached.