Trump’s promise to end the war on day one just campaign bluster

Ukrainian emergency services work to extinguish a fire following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv on Friday, January 24 (Picture: Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Under the headline, Negotiations With Trump Are a Win-Win for the Kremlin, he states: “Putin cares about negotiations with Trump because they offer a route out of international isolation and demonstrate his importance on the world stage. Negotiations are evidence that Russia is still a superpower that speaks on an equal footing with the world leader, the United States.”

Tellingly he goes on to say that: “Putin knows for a fact that Trump likes big deals. Trump will not cling to democratic values, he is self-centred and a pure pragmatist. Putin probably sees Trump as an easy target. He may even try to persuade Trump to bring Russia back to the G8.”

So, Trump’s promise to end the conflict in a day rings just as hollow now as it did when he proclaimed it on the campaign trail last year. Putin will exact a heavy price which will certainly include the transfer of some Ukranian territory to Russia.

Reuters news agency reported last week that Trump’s advisers are quietly backing away from the campaign promise to end the war on day one. The new extended timeline is now being measured in months. It reports that two Trump associates who have discussed the war in Ukraine with him said that they were looking at a timeline of months to resolve the conflict, describing the day one promises as a combination of campaign bluster and a lack of appreciation of the intractability of the conflict and the time it takes to staff up a new administration. So, no surprises there then.

In the meantime, Putin has set out to make important gains on the battlefield in an effort to gain control of more Ukrainian territory, no matter the cost in terms of personnel or equipment. So it seems likely that he will be in no hurry to sit down at the negotiating table. Indeed Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said that the peace plans put forward by Trump’s advisers were “nothing of interest”.

However, this has not deterred Trump from playing hardball with Russia. USA Today recently reported that Trump issued Putin with an ultimatum last week which essentially said – make a deal with me to end the Ukraine war or pay a hefty price. He has gone on record, saying that he would put all manner of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold to Russia and seemed to threaten secondary punishment against countries that do business with the Kremlin.

How much attention Putin will pay to this threat is anyone’s guess. If he thinks that he has the measure of Trump, he could conclude that the threat is empty and continue on his course of stealing Ukrainian land until he sees just how serious Trump is.

Whatever transpires it unfortunately looks like this terrible war, instigated by Putin, has some way to go before it is brought to an end. So my Ukrainian relatives, women, children and now, young adults will have to wait – wait for the day when they will know that their loved ones back in Kyiv are finally safe.