Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 summit, Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019
EA on TVP World: Trump, Putin, and Ukraine’s Resistance
Ukraine War, Day 1,181: Putin Strings Trump Along, Maintains Demand for Kyiv’s Surrender
In a 38-minute VideoCast special, I chat with Times Radio’s Trump Report about Vladimir Putin’s latest manipulation of Donald Trump as the Kremlin maintains its attempt to break Ukraine.
I evaluate the Putin-Trump call, explaining how the Kremlin seized the initiative with its rejection of a ceasefire and the restating of its ultimata — “the root causes of the conflict” — to seize Ukrainian territory and keep the rest of the country weak and subject to Moscow’s demands.
I consider the dynamic in Washington, looking not just at Trump’s subservience to Putin but also the position of others within and beyond the Administration.
And I emphasize that the fundamental remains the same: can and will Europe maintain its support of Ukraine’s resistance?
[Editor’s Note: The fundamental — it’s difficult to pursue “peaceful coexistence” with a political actor who is far from peaceful.]
But why would Rubio and Vance want to get sucked into Europe’s Russia agenda — adopting Biden’s policies — when they clearly failed? When was the last time Biden spoke to Putin? It was at the summit in 2021. How can you make a successful run for the presidency of the United States when you don’t have a peaceful coexistence/detente policy to run with? This is one of the reasons why many Americans didn’t vote for Kemala Harris. Professor Lucas must think Rubio and Vance are stupid. They know Ukraine can’t prevail; and a provocative action, like the one made by Estonia, could spark a NATO-Russia war. Lucas knows that Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen are looking to pull the US into a direct confrontation with Russia. Netanyahu wants to do the same with Iran. This would be a disaster for these regions and for the US. Putin is facing a lot of criticism from his detractors in Moscow who think that any deal with Washington is a waste of time, that US policy will change for the worse with the next administration, and that the inconsistency within the Trump administration helps make the case for all-out-war with Ukraine. Medvedev said so a couple of days ago.
We can only hope that cooler heads will prevail in Brussels, Washington,….and among the academics in Dublin.