The Greatest Impediment to Ending Russia’s War against Ukraine

During his election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly boasted that he expected to solve the war against Ukraine “within 24 hours” of taking office. However, since becoming president again Trump has walked back that specific timeline, calling it “sarcastic” and acknowledging that it is a “very complicated” process. 

Indeed, it has been almost as complicated as was Russian führer Putin’s expectation to seize Kyiv within two or three days of starting the war in February 2022.

After nearly four years of this hot war, the longest in Europe in recent memory, President Trump is now quietly living the grim reality of his ignorance of the ancient issues, disregard of Ukraine’s needs, coupled with Russia’s hatred for Ukrainians, and Moscow’s desire to subjugate the country while turning Ukraine into a prison regardless of the course of the talks.

His stubborn reluctance to consider Ukraine’s point of view as well as the opinions of Eastern and Western European leaders has brought the negotiations to a standstill while Moscow visibly edges out all participants.

Ironically Trump had said Ukraine started the war in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “dictator” even though he won a fair election in 2019 and ridiculed him during that infamous ambush in the White House in January 2025. But Trump doesn’t say the same about Putin, even though his main opponent died in jail a few weeks before Putin won a rigged election last year.

In the past few weeks, Trump and his team have also undermined NATO, backed far-right politicians in Europe and vowed to hit the European Union with a trade war for its “very unfair” treatment of the US. No wonder a growing number of European officials and diplomats think the American president is really on Russia’s side. Pundits have counted that Trump has sided with Putin, who maintains his stubborn position on subjugating all of Ukraine, in his first month back in power 29 times.

Within a few months of his inauguration it became evident that Trump is paving a new path in his foreign policy considerations. He is veering away from the decades-long American tradition of advocating on behalf of the captive nations of Russian aggression and comprehending the ongoing danger posed by Russian aggression. The 47^th President of the United States of America has panicked NATO member-states and the international community by ignoring their entreaties on behalf of Ukraine and Eastern Europe while throwing the newly independent countries under the proverbial bus.  Furthermore, the countries that experienced Russian subjugation and their advocates have vociferously warned that after Ukraine’s complete collapse Russia will set its sights on expanding its conquest of all of Europe.

All of this has fallen on President Trump’s deaf ears. His obnoxious support of Russia is endangering the free world.

For example, Trump said on December 29 that Russian führer Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin’s residence in northern Russia, an accusation Kyiv has denied.

“I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump told reporters when asked whether the alleged attack could affect efforts to broker peace. “I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it."

"It's a delicate period of time,” he added. “This is not the right time. It’s one thing to be offensive, because they’re offensive. It’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that,” he said exonerating Moscow’s good intentions.

While Trump said it’s not the right time for Ukraine to attack Russia, he has said nothing about Russia’s continuous bombardment of civilian homes and infrastructures and murder of unarmed Ukrainians.

When asked whether there was any evidence of such an attack, Trump said, “We'll find out.” Don’t count on it.

Russian forces launched a large-scale drone attack on Odesa overnight December 30-31, striking residential buildings, leaving parts of the city without heat, electricity or water, and injuring six people, including three children, local officials said, was also overlooked by Trump. More than 170,000 people are without power after the attack, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday morning. “Another proof that Russia is targeting civilians,” Serhii Lysak, the head of Odesa City Military Administration wrote on social media following the strike on the building.

President Zelenskyy dismissed Putin’s claim as “another lie,” warning that Moscow could use the allegation and Trump’s belittling of Kyiv’s accusations of Russian attacks to justify more potential strikes, most likely targeting Kyiv.

Putin relayed the allegation during a phone call with Trump, which came after Trump’s recent meeting with Zelenskyy in Florida. Trump described his bookend calls with Putin as “very good,” a regular nod toward the Russian dictator.

Trump's ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker cast doubt on the accusations on December 30, telling Fox News that it was “unclear whether it actually happened.”

Trump’s remarks came as Russia, feeling the warmth of the American President’s words, has continued near-daily attacks on non-military targets in Ukraine’s capital and other cities. In its latest mass attack on December 26-27, Russia launched nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles targeting Kyiv’s energy infrastructure, killing two civilians and injuring 32 others.

Zelenskyy said a “sick” drone attack on Kyiv by Russian forces revealed Putin’s “true attitude” as he is set to meet his Trump last Sunday. About a third of Ukraine’s capital was left without heat in sub-zero weather conditions after Moscow’s air force launched almost 500 drones, largely shaheds, and 40 missiles in a large air strike. The air force said Russian drones were targeting the capital and regions in the North East and the South.

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said: “Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them. This is the true attitude of Putin and his inner circle.”

In mid-December 2025, Zelenskyy said Kyiv will not recognize the temporarily occupied part of the eastern Donbas region as legally or de facto Russian. The Ukrainian president also appeared to reference the “historical lands” comment that Putin made in his address this past month. “There are other countries in Europe that someone in Russia may one day call their ‘historical lands,’” Zelenskyy warned. “We need real protection from this Russian history of madness.”

Trump should take note of the latest poll about Ukrainian citizens’ views of their future that echo those of their President. Fortunately for Ukraine, the opinion poll, conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF), found that 76% of the 2,000 adults surveyed nationwide consider it unacceptable to recognize occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia. To spell it out for the American President and Russian führer, Ukrainians, the ultimate rulers of their nation, country and destiny, do not recognize Russian seizure their homes and will not give them to Moscow.

Negotiations will come and go, Zelenskyy will thankfully not budge from his pro-Ukrainian positions, and Trump will remain the greatest impediment to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine after it emerges victorious from the war that Russia started.