L to R: French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral of Pope Francis, The Vatican, April 26, 2025 (ANSA)
Oreysia Lutsevych of Chatham House and I joined Times Radio on Sunday to analyze Donald Trump’s sudden turn against Vladimir Putin over Russia’s 38-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and whether it will last.
While noting the influence of Trump’s 15-minute conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Vatican basilica on Saturday, I explain how Putin overplayed his hand — and thus lost diplomatic advantage — with his mass murder of civilians in Kyiv on Thursday.
From Republican legislators and — perhaps more importantly — from outlets like Fox TV, there has been a chorus of comments in the past two or three days, “Why are siding with this murderer? Why are you siding with a Russia who is not our friend?”
Trump, Witkoff, and Rubio are coming around to understanding Russia’s security perspective. The missile attacks won’t phase them.
I disagree with Professor Lucas. I think Trump is convinced that a strategic compromise with Russia is necessary for peace and security in the region. The US is crumbling internally, and can no longer maintain the biased European security order that has existed since 1945. Secretary of State Rubio has acknowledged this, following briefings by Witkoff. Trump’s policies are accelerating US decline, and that makes strategic accommodation — what Russia made clear it wanted in December 2021 — increasingly likely.