Trump praises Ukraine's Spider's Web operation

Of course, this admiration is accompanied by the American president’s concern that Putin will now respond sharply and harshly to the results of this special operation, which may further reduce the chances for a diplomatic resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, stopping the war or at least achieving a ceasefire on the front.

It can be said that this conclusion by the outlet does not contradict the words Donald Trump himself used when talking about his conversation with Putin. The American president described the talk as “good, but not one that will lead to a quick peace,” and also emphasized that Putin is determined to respond to Ukraine’s special operation. In Trump’s reaction, we can see the contradictions in his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and how he would like to resolve the situation related to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

"On one hand, Donald Trump is a man who values strength above all else, and we have seen him repeatedly tell both Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other interlocutors that “Ukraine has no cards” in its confrontation with Russia."

In Trump’s language, this meant that Ukrainians should agree to the terms that could be worked out between Russian and American negotiators during their own talks. Ukraine simply cannot set its own conditions for ending the war because its potential cannot be compared to Russia’s.

The fact that Putin himself refused several times Trump’s calls for a ceasefire on the Russia-Ukraine front, even before any special operations took place, the fact that Russian and American officials failed to reach any real, concrete ceasefire agreements during several rounds of negotiations, and the fact that when talks began in Istanbul, the Russian participants outright rejected American involvement, saying they lacked a mandate from Putin — all this did not convince Trump that he was creating a dangerous illusion he also wants to sell to Ukrainians and Europeans.

The fact that Kyiv and European capitals did not agree with Trump’s unrealistic worldview did not affect the U.S. president’s opinion on how the Russia-Ukraine war could end. Even the latest phone call between the U.S. and Russian leaders convinced us that Trump still believes he can find a way to persuade Putin to end the war. At the same time, Trump does everything possible not to “provoke” the Russian leader and aims to remain a friendly partner. That is why the U.S. president has blocked new sanctions against Russia several times, he does not want to pressure Putin. This approach can be seen as archaic, as it was the same toward the Russian leader before the war started in February 2022.

Western politicians also believed it was necessary to provoke Putin as little as possible and seek ways to cooperate with Russia that would convince the Russian leader that dealing with the West is beneficial, while continuing the war destroys this benefit. There was much debate around creating bypass routes through the Baltic Sea and other alternative paths, so Russia could circumvent the Ukrainian gas transport system.

In the last weeks of her tenure as head of the German government, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Washington to persuade President Joseph Biden not to impose new sanctions on Nord Stream 2. And all the evidence that completing this gas pipeline would trigger a major war in Europe did not convince either German politicians or the German public.

"Ukrainians find it hard to blame Americans or Europeans because the Ukrainian political class and voters themselves lived under these childish illusions literally until February 2022."

Remember how the idea that an agreement with Vladimir Putin was possible was the main theme of both the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns in 2019. The new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, convinced his voters that he had ended the war in his mind and that the way to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. That meeting, I remind you, still took place in Paris but ended in a clear diplomatic and political fiasco. Yet even then, Kyiv chose to ignore this and continued to live in sweet and dangerous illusions. Instead of preparing for war, the small funds available to the economy of a poor, frustrated Ukraine, wearied by years of conflict with Russia, were spent on popular projects meant not to increase the country’s security, but to boost the personal rating of the new Ukrainian president and his irresponsible team.

And in this situation, we all clearly understand that now, Donald Trump is following the same path.

The world around has simply changed. Everyone realizes that it’s impossible to negotiate with Putin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself drew obvious conclusions from the clear mistakes of the first stage of his presidency — from a president seeking agreements with Putin and building roads, he transformed into the leader of a warring country that has no real chance of exiting the Russia-Ukraine war without weakening the enemy’s potential.

And of course, in this situation, one can welcome that Trump instinctively feels respect and admiration for the special operation carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service against Russian airfields and the aircraft stationed there. But, on the other hand, Trump’s continued illusions about his own diplomatic initiative to end the Russia-Ukraine war are extremely dangerous. Because this is a policy of the past, one that could later justify withholding adequate military and financial aid to Ukraine from the U.S. So, it would be good if, alongside his emotional admiration, Donald Trump also gained an understanding of the world we live in.

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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.