From Kommersant, Jan. 24, 2025, p. 5. Condensed text:
US President Donald Trump has set about resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine using his favorite method of communication – posts on social media. . . .
Having failed to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict 24 hours after his inauguration, as he had previously promised, the head of the White House on his third day after taking office decided to use his favorite tool, trying to stop the fighting using a microblogging service.
On Wednesday [Jan. 22], Donald Trump posted on his own network Truth Social in a way that, more clearly than ever before, was both threatening and sympathetic to Russia. The US president started off with pleasantries: “I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people and always had a very good relationship with President [Vladimir] Putin.*** We must never forget that Russia helped us win World War II, losing almost 60 million lives,” the US president wrote.
In this regard, he stated that he was going to “do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big favor. “Settle now and STOP this ridiculous war! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything sold by Russia to the US and various other participating countries,” Mr. Trump threatened.
In his opinion, it is possible to end the fighting “the easy way or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL,’ ” the head of the White House concluded.
Before posting the statement on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky would like peace and spoke to him very seriously on the subject. Mr. Trump commented that it “takes two to tango” and proposed seeing what happens.
Judging by the latest statements from the new head of the White House, he is sure that he has already agreed on everything with Vladimir Zelensky, and now his task is to reach an agreement with Vladimir Putin. However, both Moscow’s and Kiev’s reactions to such steps by Donald Trump suggest that he will obviously have to dive a little deeper into the context.
While everyone was discussing Mr. Trump’s post, Vladimir Zelensky gave an interview to Bloomberg, in which he did not fully confirm the American president’s words about his readiness to negotiate. The Ukrainian president said that he is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin only if the head of the White House can guarantee Ukraine’s “irreversible security.” He added that he would like to start negotiations after the withdrawal of Russian troops to the borders of Feb. 24, 2022 [when Russia invaded Ukraine; see Vol. 74, No. 8, pp. 9-13 – Trans.], but made it clear that he no longer considers this condition mandatory.
In Russia, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov assessed Donald Trump’s latest statements, making clear that the US president’s attempt to sweeten the pill, after threats with a few nice words, had failed. Mr. Peskov noted that the Republican’s numbers were off regarding the USSR’s losses in World War II. All known estimates show that the Soviet Union lost half as many people as Mr. Trump said. In addition, Dmitry Peskov said that it was not Russia that “helped” win World War II, but rather “America helped.” At the same time, he assured that “we will always remember and will never forget the US’s assistance during World War II,” and expressed the hope that “Americans and President Trump will share with us the joy of celebrating the 80th anniversary of Victory.”
Donald Trump’s threats did not impress the Kremlin either. “We don’t see any particularly new elements here. You know that even in the first iteration of his presidency, Trump was the American president who most often resorted to sanctions,” Dmitry Peskov recalled, suggesting that the Republican “likes these methods.” He added that Moscow is closely following Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and statements, and remains ready “for an equal dialogue, a mutually respectful dialogue.” However, there have been no signals so far from the new administration in Washington about organizing a dialogue between Russia and the US. “We are waiting for signals,” Mr. Peskov admitted.
The day before, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing its sources, reported that Donald Trump had ordered Keith Kellogg, his appointed special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, to end the conflict in Ukraine in 100 days. According to the newspaper, no one seriously believes that Mr. Kellogg will complete his task in such a short time.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s recent attempts to approach the settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict have attracted the attention not only of Russia and Ukraine, but also of American experts. Analysts mainly looked with skepticism on the White House leader’s first steps on this path, since they show that Mr. Trump does not actually have a unique settlement plan that would quickly stop the fighting.