By threatening Russia with very strict punitive tariffs and promising weapons to Ukraine, Donald Trump seems to be facing another U-turn, declaring that he is disappointed with Russian President Vladimir Putin, BTA reported, citing AFP.
It remains to be seen whether this is a real change in strategy for an American president who has so far maintained an atmosphere of uncertainty about his position on the war in Ukraine.
The fact is that despite the impatience shown, Trump gave a new deadline of 50 days to the Russian president, who three years after the invasion of Ukraine still refuses to end the war.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has become closer to Putin while trying to keep his campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine. During the election campaign, he said he could do it in 24 hours.
Trump's rapprochement with Putin has raised fears in Kiev that it will be abandoned in the middle of the road. This feeling has been especially strong since Trump's heated argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House in late February.
At the time, Trump called Zelensky a "dictator without an election," stressing that Ukraine had "no cards" against Russia.
But the tone has changed in recent weeks after a series of fruitless negotiations, and Trump has now made clear his dissatisfaction with the Russian president.
"Putin talks nice during the day, and in the evening he starts bombing everybody," Trump said yesterday. Russian strikes on Ukraine have recently intensified. Moscow is setting new records every week for the number of drones and missiles launched, supplied by a military-industrial complex that is operating at full steam.
Trump, who does not hide his admiration for the Russian leader, with whom he says he has always had a very good relationship, recently called Putin "completely crazy."
In a rare display of revelation, the US president suggested that first lady Melania Trump played a role in his current shift in position. "I go home and I say to the first lady, "I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a great conversation." And she says, "Is that so? "Another (Ukrainian) city has been hit," Trump said.
"I'm not saying he's a murderer, but you can't really change his mind," Trump said. But he did not mention anything that would suggest that Putin was trolling him.
The two leaders have spoken on the phone six times since January, but contrary to Trump's insinuations, no bilateral meeting is planned.
"Trump promised he could bring Putin to the negotiating table, but he never did," said Heather Conley of the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
Trump's threat to impose 100 percent secondary tariffs on Moscow's allies if a deal on Ukraine is not reached within 50 days shows that he is irritated that he has not achieved an end to the war in that country, Conley added, but stressed that he did not consider the threat a major change in Trump's policy.
The opposition Democratic Party in the United States was quick to welcome Trump's change of heart, saying, following the example of Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said she was "pleased that Trump appears to recognize Putin's responsibility for this senseless and barbaric slaughter of innocent people." "But now it's time to back up words with action to end this war," she added in a statement.
Yesterday, Trump did not say publicly whether he supported a bill that enjoys broad support in Congress to impose 500 percent tariffs on countries like China, India and Brazil that support the Russian military machine and buy cheap Russian oil and natural gas.
But according to Heather Conley, "the Kremlin has put all its energy into this fight and is betting on a slow erosion of Ukraine's and the West's position because it wants to win this conflict on its own terms."