Day after day, official Washington sticks to its flawed and misguided approach to the Russian war on Ukraine and the West.

Day after day, the United States endears itself to a war criminal covered with innocent blood and badgers the people of Ukraine and their president.

It is embarrassing who our government is picking as a friend while dumping all over the victim.

The situation could and should change if only Washington accepted that Russia is the enemy and needs to be defeated.   That one decision, acted upon, would lead to the objective our President says he wants.

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Trump says he's got his "own deadline" for Ukraine talks

The president, meeting with Norwegian leaders, is pressuring Kyiv and Moscow to make peace, but not equally.

By: Eli Stokols, Robbie Gramer | 04/24/2025 01:17 PM EDT

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Peace in our time

PoliticoPro included a photo of a meeting at the White House.  I inserted the cartoon by Michale Ramirez and the photo of Neville Chamberlain returning from Nazi Germany. RAM

Nearing the 100-day mark of his administration, President Donald Trump is pushing Ukraine hard to accept the terms of a peace deal with Russia to end the three-year war by giving major concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin. [PoliticoPro and the President need to be reminded again-and-again, this is not a three-year war, it is now into its eleventh year.  The war and the Russian war crimes started during the Obama Administration and have continued through each subsequent Administration with the killings, abduction of children, repression of civilians living in Russia occupied territories, and more.  Among the many treaties and agreements Russia unilaterally violated was the Budapest Memorandum of which the United States was also a signatory, assuring the sovereignty of Ukraine’s borders.  Russia violated by invading.  The United States violated by doing nothing.  Now, the White House has taken the Budapest Memorandum off the White House website.  Putin makes up phony history and our White House erases and ignores history to pitch its own made-up reality.  RAM]

Expressing confidence that “we’re going to get it done,” Trump also stressed on Thursday that he has his “own deadline” for reaching a deal, though he did not specify it. “We want it to be fast,” he continued. "We have a deadline. After that, we will have a very much different attitude.” [Too bad the “it” in “getting it done” does not involved a strategic objective directed at ending Russia aggression and anything that can remotely be thought to be a lasting, genuine peace.  “Stopping the killing” and rushing to pressure Ukraine into going along with a naïve and worthless ceasefire or negotiated peace when Russia is to be rewarded for its genocide, will simply lead to greater aggression by Russia and other malevolent countries around the world.  Which is plain to see for anyone willing to see.  RAM]

If anyone can sway Trump on Ukraine’s behalf, it might be former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg — who accompanied Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to the White House on Thursday.

Stoltenberg, who was Norway’s prime minister before he led the NATO alliance for a decade in Brussels, attended Trump’s inauguration in January and is thought to be among Europe’s most effective interlocutors with this administration.

“The president really likes and trusts him,” said one White House official, granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the relationship.

Trump, seated across from Støre and Stoltenberg during a lunch in the Cabinet Room, said the former NATO leader “did a great job” leading the alliance, even as he suggested that America’s commitment to defending the other 31 member nations wasn’t iron-clad.

Asked if he viewed NATO as “sacrosanct,” the president mused that it was “an interesting question,” suggesting that America is the key to the alliance but not, in his view, a main beneficiary. “It's very important for Europe,” Trump said. “Without us, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful.”

Stoltenberg likely played a key role in getting Støre face time with Trump, which comes as the president’s “reciprocal” tariffs are on a three-month pause and countries are racing to secure trade agreements with the U.S.

Norway is not a member of the European Union and Støre is one of the few foreign leaders to meet with Trump directly since the trade war began three weeks ago.

The bigger matter for Stoltenberg and the rest of Europe is the war in Ukraine.

In an interview Wednesday evening, Stoltenberg previewed his message to Trump that defending Ukraine is very much aligned with security interests.

“If Putin wins in Ukraine, if Putin gets what he wants, it will make the world more dangerous,” he said. "It will demonstrate for him, but also for other authoritarian leaders, that when they use military force, when they violate international law, when they invade another country, they get what they want.”

Putin, he added, won’t be the only one to absorb that lesson. "It will also be a lesson which [China’s] President Xi learns, so it's in our security interest to support Ukraine," he said.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made clear their patience for foot-dragging by Ukraine and Russia is running short, with the U.S. backing out of scheduled peace talks with Ukrainian officials in London this week. Meanwhile, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet again with Putin on Thursday.  [To our President – and maybe our Secretary of State – it is “foot-dragging”.  To Ukraine it is defending its national interests against being pushing into a very bad deal. To Putin it is a strategy to drag things out until Washington, with its gnat-like attention span and lust to open Russia for business, casts Ukraine and anything related to moral clarity aside to set up cash registers outside the Kremlin.  RAM]

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump again made clear that he is mostly frustrated with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He wrote that Zelenskyy’s public opposition to a main plank of the proposed U.S. peace deal — recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014 — was “very harmful” to negotiations with Russia.  [That our President would say such a thing is outrageous and embarrassing.  RAM]

“If he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” Trump wrote — ignoring the fact that the Obama administration and allies in Europe, worried about antagonizing Putin, opted against enforcing the terms of the Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine had given up its nuclear weapons based on the promise of Western security backing. [“Why didn’t they fight of Crimea” - Trump was not in the White House when Russia invaded Crimea but someone has to have told him of our despicable role in no shots being fired – our despicable role!  RAM]

“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump continued. “He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.” [Perhaps it is time for our President to have a review of the agencies delivering his intelligence briefings.  Is he getting accurate information from anyone?  Is he and his team only listening to Putin and Steve Witkoff?  Russia’s war is not going all that well from the Russians.  Russian victory is certainly not a forgone conclusion.  Everything from superior fighting on the Ukrainian side, terrible morale and spreading tuberculosis on the Russian side of the line raises questions about the Russian future.  RAM]

At the same time, the president has suggested that Russia has essentially agreed to a peace deal that, according to a person briefed on the proposal and granted anonymity to discuss it, would end the conflict along the current battlelines and give Russia control of approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. While Russia would also see economic sanctions lifted, Ukraine would be asked to rely on security guarantees that are not backed by American hard power, leaving it to Europe to provide future defense aid in the event of another invasion. [One word – “Naïve”.  RAM]

Trump did voice his disapproval Thursday morning for Russia’s overnight bombing of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, but his social media post was far shorter than his screed a day earlier toward Zelenskyy. His stern response to Putin, in fact, was lightened with a plea:

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”  [Steve Witkoff says Putin is not a bad guy and our President thinks Putin wants peace – you cannot make this stuff up.  RAM]

Asked upon greeting Støre outside the West Wing if he thought Putin was still serious about peace, Trump replied that he was. But some White House allies disagree.

“The sick Russian attack on Kyiv demonstrates that War Criminal Putin is not serious about peace,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said in a post on X. “Only greater force can bring him to the table. It is time for heavy secondary sanctions on Russian oil. We need to give POTUS maximum leverage!”

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ROBERT MCCONNELL
Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network

The introduction and parenthetical comments are Mr. McConnell’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN).