Trump-Putin call on war is another blow to Kyiv

For Ukraine and its allies, who spent months trying to win Donald Trump over to their cause in the war started by Russia, it is back to square one.

- 

In a two-hour conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin late on Monday, the US president dropped his earlier insistence on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire that he hoped would kickstart what promise to be long and tortuous peace talks. Ukraine backed that proposal while Russia did not.

Trump also signalled that the war he once promised to end in 24 hours was no longer his to fix — a message that leaves Ukraine vulnerable and its allies worried. It is another blow to Kyiv, coming less than three months after Trump's public falling out with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Since then, Europe's leaders have scrambled to repair the relationship and regain the initiative.

In the weeks before the phone call, Trump had threatened to slap tougher sanctions on Russia if it did not show progress towards peace, a move Ukraine hoped would convince Putin to step back from his maximalist demands in any negotiations. That “stick” approach is gone for now, replaced by the “carrot” of economic partnership with the United States if and when the war ends.