One of the main campaign premises – if not the most prominent one — of President Donald Trump was the definitive cessation of hostilities in the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Campaign promises of immediate success in negotiations that would have Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy practically bowed to the will of the MAGA community’s hero – Trump – have faded and are now further away than ever.
However, if Trump believes he can become the savior of Europe and win the Nobel Peace Prize with a peace treaty ending the bloodiest war in Europe of the 21st century, Donald Trump is in for a rude awakening.
On the one hand, Russia seems more determined than ever to win the conflict, given the Russian advances in the city of Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian city at the center of Russian war efforts. Despite worrying economic indicators and rising inflation in the Siberian giant, troops coming from North Korea as well as mercenaries and conscripts recruited all over the world are sent like cannon fodder to the Ukrainian defensive lines.
Since Trump took office, the Russian-Ukrainian war has escalated to unimaginable heights. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2025 has been the year of most missile attacks, and these attacks have been the largest in terms of firepower and numbers of drones in the air.
In fact, on Sept. 9, Poland was the victim of 23 Russian drones, which violated NATO airspace regulations. Several countries deployed fighters and countermeasures to shoot down the Russian transgressors, and Warsaw airport closed its airspace and suspended operations for several hours.
On the other hand, peace negotiations only give Russia more time to achieve the primary objective of militarily occupying the four oblasts claimed by the Kremlin.
Proof of that are the failed meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, and the repercussions of this meeting, with much of Europe self-inviting a second meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy to support Ukraine and ensure that the U.S. does not make concessions of legitimate Ukrainian territory in the Donbas.
It shows the European bloc continues to stray from Trump’s style of negotiating with Putin, and prefers a more direct and belligerent attitude toward Putin’s policies. And not the appeasement policy Trump seems to be copying from former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
The long-awaited secondary economic sanctions – which not only target Russia, but also those willing to negotiate with Russia – have been indefinitely postponed after two ultimatums, one of 50 days and the other of 10 days. This is because the White House made a mistake in principle in announcing the use of these sanctions, since they would ultimately affect trade with economic powers such as China and India. In turn, the mistake imbalances the world oil and gas market, increasing demand and raising prices.
In fact, just a few days after Anchorage, Putin had a meeting with the president of China Xi Jinping and the prime minister of India Narendra Modi, on Sept. 1 in the Chinese city of Tianjin, which would imply that these three nations are uniting more and more in block against the U.S., in fact that, it was precisely the kind of unionization one that Trump sought to avoid.
The indecision of the White House has cost Ukraine crucial months; the Russian summer offensive has succeeded in seriously weakening the Ukrainian defenses and advancing even more ground. At the same time it has completely deprived Zelenskyy of negotiating letters in future peace talks.
On the other hand, it seems that the U.S. president is still focused on winning the Nobel Prize no matter what, and at this point he seems to be weighing whether Ukraine’s sovereignty is an acceptable price for a gold medallion to feed his ego.
Trump remains stubbornly clinging to the decision not to give away equipment to Ukraine, without getting an economic benefit from Europe.
At this point, Trump has accepted the delivery of anti-air batteries “Patriot” – a vital resource for Ukraine, which needs to cover their cities from enemy bombings and clean the skies in order to revive his military-industrial complex and his general economy. He accepted it with the condition that Europe will pay for it to the U.S., or at least donate their stocks of equipment to Ukraine under the condition of replenishing them with purchases from U.S. military industry.
Because the peace negotiations between the trident of the world’s best armed countries and the war in the last year have been characterized by three different behaviors: Ukraine’s unwavering defence of its sovereignty, the cunning of the Russian Federation in sabotaging and boycotting the Ukrainian support network while buying time and distracting Ukraine’s allies on other fronts, and finally, the lack of reliability of the U.S. both as a keeper of peace and as an ally.
There are several occasions when arbitrary and impulsive decisions by Trump cost Ukrainian victories on the battlefield, while he does not seem to care about the multiple war crimes that the Russian army has committed throughout the invasion.
So, again, regarding the president of the United States: How much is he willing to sacrifice to satisfy his arrogance and pride?
