Trump’s False Impatience
Published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(Germany) on 18 April 2025
by Andreas Ross (link to original)
Russia doesn’t want peace. But the U.S. government is disgruntled with Kyiv and the Europeans. Can America’s retreat be stopped?
Donald Trump’s administration has every reason to lose patience with the diplomacy surrounding Ukraine. The Russian aggressor is delaying it and insisting on its maximalist demands. No one needs to explain to the experienced Russian realist Marco Rubio how bitter it is that his commander-in-chief is propagating Vladimir Putin’s cynical fairy tales.
But the American Secretary of State did not choose Moscow or a meeting with representatives of Russia for the ominous warning that, if there is no movement on this soon, then Trump, who “after 87 days” is clearly tired of the West’s fight for freedom, will turn to other means. He articulated it in Paris, where he had been in talks with representatives of Ukraine and their most important supporters.
Greedy for Putin’s Friendship
Contrary to what the American president never tires of implying, however, it is not Ukraine and its NATO partners but Putin alone who bears responsibility for this horrific war. And it is precisely for that reason that only Putin can end it.
Since Trump, greedy for Putin’s friendship and recognition, ignores this logic, some Europeans may even derive hope from the prospect that the Americans could finally turn to “other things.” But everything points toward Ukraine paying the full cost of such a retreat — and NATO, if America does, in fact, make itself scarce.
So, it is hardly any consolation that the Europeans, whom Washington has been ignoring since the talks in Paris (for which Germany’s outgoing foreign minister apparently wasn’t able to find time), will be able to meet with the Americans again next week. At this meeting in London and in the trade talks in Rome, which Trump’s favorite European, Giorgia Meloni, thinks she has engineered, they will need to make substantive recommendations.
Donald Trump’s administration has every reason to lose patience with the diplomacy surrounding Ukraine. The Russian aggressor is delaying it and insisting on its maximalist demands. No one needs to explain to the experienced Russian realist Marco Rubio how bitter it is that his commander-in-chief is propagating Vladimir Putin’s cynical fairy tales.
But the American Secretary of State did not choose Moscow or a meeting with representatives of Russia for the ominous warning that, if there is no movement on this soon, then Trump, who “after 87 days” is clearly tired of the West’s fight for freedom, will turn to other means. He articulated it in Paris, where he had been in talks with representatives of Ukraine and their most important supporters.
Greedy for Putin’s Friendship
Contrary to what the American president never tires of implying, however, it is not Ukraine and its NATO partners but Putin alone who bears responsibility for this horrific war. And it is precisely for that reason that only Putin can end it.
Since Trump, greedy for Putin’s friendship and recognition, ignores this logic, some Europeans may even derive hope from the prospect that the Americans could finally turn to “other things.” But everything points toward Ukraine paying the full cost of such a retreat — and NATO, if America does, in fact, make itself scarce.
So, it is hardly any consolation that the Europeans, whom Washington has been ignoring since the talks in Paris (for which Germany’s outgoing foreign minister apparently wasn’t able to find time), will be able to meet with the Americans again next week. At this meeting in London and in the trade talks in Rome, which Trump’s favorite European, Giorgia Meloni, thinks she has engineered, they will need to make substantive recommendations.
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