Donald Trump has described Russia’s attack on Sumy as “terrible” but stopped short of calling out Vladimir Putin directly for the strike that killed 34 people in northeastern Ukraine yesterday.
The Trump administration has undertaken a sharp reversal of former president Joe Biden’s policy to isolate Russia, bringing Moscow to the table for peace talks and reopening cooperation between its embassies.
But, as Poland’s foreign minister said earlier this morning, Putin appears to be “mocking” Trump’s goodwill with Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine (see 9.07am post).
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke says there might now come a point where the US president is forced to be tougher on Russia.
“There was a sense that Easter was going to be a time when he wanted some sort of deal, that he wanted to be a peacemaker,” he tells presenter Gareth Barlow. “That’s obviously not going to happen now.
“There will come a point at which either he might reverse his policy, and start to be really tough on the Russians and give Ukraine a lot more military help.
“That would be a very important signal, but that would be such a big switch from his approach so far.”
Clarke adds that it’s more likely Trump will “kick it into the long grass politically” and the war “will just carry on”.
Remember, you can submit a question at the top of this page for Professor Clarke to answer on Wednesday in his weekly Ukraine Q&A.