{"id":619611,"date":"2025-12-08T07:48:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/619611\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T07:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:48:19","slug":"trump-is-preparing-to-abandon-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/619611\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump is preparing to abandon Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could this be the moment at which US President Donald Trump washes his hands of Ukraine for good? His son thinks it might be. Donald Trump Jr yesterday told<\/a> the Doha Forum that his father may walk away from supporting Kyiv, adding that \u201cyou don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why now? Perhaps because Russia continues to block the current peace deal, with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov yesterday demanding<\/a> \u201cradical changes\u201d to the revised<\/a> plan. While the exact details of Moscow\u2019s objections remain unknown, a Russian official has indicated<\/a> that the Kremlin will not back down on acquiring all of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, limiting the size of Ukraine\u2019s military and obtaining American as well as European recognition of the territory it has captured.<\/p>\n

That Moscow is maintaining a maximalist stance is hardly surprising. Throughout this process, the Kremlin has been consistently unwilling to make any concessions. Indeed, when called upon to identify any compromises the Russians were making in the 28-point proposal, the best Trump could offer<\/a> was that \u201cthey stop fighting and they don\u2019t take any more land.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian President is even less likely to climb down now. Having seen how willingly US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff acceded<\/a> to Moscow\u2019s demands, Vladimir Putin will settle for nothing less. Besides, he knows Trump sympathises with his position. Putin last week stressed<\/a> that Donetsk and Luhansk will eventually fall to him, whether they are taken by force or surrendered as part of a deal. It is a familiar message for Volodymyr Zelensky: in October, after speaking with Russia\u2019s President, Trump urged<\/a> his Ukrainian counterpart to surrender the Donbas or be \u201cdestroyed\u201d.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Ukraine\u2019s current situation is markedly more challenging than it was then. The Russian army is advancing<\/a> at one of its fastest rates of the war. While Moscow typically accelerates operations during negotiations so as to project an image of battlefield success, this will only encourage Trump\u2019s belief that Ukraine \u2014 and, by extension, its allies \u2014 is fighting a losing battle. There is his impatience to consider. The newly released US National Security Strategy<\/a> is not only \u201cconsistent\u201d, in the Kremlin\u2019s words<\/a>, with Moscow\u2019s vision, but also reveals<\/a> America\u2019s eagerness for an \u201cexpeditious cessation of hostilities\u201d followed by \u201cstrategic stability with Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beyond hinting at Trump\u2019s possible next move, his son\u2019s remarks underscore how Ukrainian and European attempts to reshape the views of the President\u2019s inner circle have failed. Don Jr dismissed<\/a> the war as irrelevant to American voters, derided Zelensky as a \u201cgreat marketer\u201d who is prolonging the conflict to retain power, railed against corruption in Ukraine, and portrayed Kyiv as a financial burden with the US playing the role of \u201cthe idiot with the chequebook\u201d. Ukraine\u2019s ongoing<\/a> energy sector corruption scandal will keep MAGA minds focused on where Western money is heading, while the forthcoming departure<\/a> of Keith Kellogg, one of Kyiv\u2019s most steadfast supporters in the US administration, will deprive Zelensky of a champion at a vital moment.<\/p>\n

Then there are the issues around aid to Ukraine. The PURL<\/a> scheme, under which allies purchase US weapons for Ukraine, was designed to engage the American President over the long term by appealing to his transactional instincts and demonstrating that Western partners were stepping up to fund Kyiv. Yet, for all the headline-grabbing<\/a> figures, tensions<\/a> have emerged over countries which sign up but fail to contribute. Additionally, questions remain about how to sustain the scheme, and the narrative of Nato allies funding America\u2019s defence industry has yet to resonate with US voters. Under these circumstances, the White House\u2019s image of itself as \u201cthe idiot with the chequebook\u201d will likely endure.<\/p>\n

As is so often the case with his father, Trump Jr\u2019s words could be dismissed as mere bravado. Yet they are being echoed in the corridors of power across Europe. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned in a leaked phone call<\/a> that the US may be about to \u201cbetray\u201d Kyiv, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz cautioned that America is \u201cplaying games\u201d with Ukraine and Europe. With both war and peace at a critical juncture, Zelensky may well find himself on the losing end of these high-stakes games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could this be the moment at which US President Donald Trump washes his hands of Ukraine for good?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[32,2000,299,332,657,753,2970,333,658],"class_list":{"0":"post-619611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-ukraine","13":"tag-ukraine-war","14":"tag-uncategorized","15":"tag-vladimir-putin","16":"tag-volodymyr-zelensky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115682849850545211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}