Is Trump chicken on Kyiv?
It looks like Putin has rejected the Trump initiated 30 day ceasefire deal on the war on Ukraine. See the FT piece below.
https://www.ft.com/content/c169189c-4642-4037-b64f-9631ac61a7c7
Trump promised tough action against Russia if it failed to come to the Ukraine peace party. He suggested a ramping up in military support for Ukraine and the mother of all sanctions on Russia in response.
Remember here that when Zelensky expressed similar scepticism over a temporary ceasefire and asked for more substantive talks first over a long term peace he was hit hard. In response Trump berated Zelensky in that Oval Office mugging for not being serious about peace and sanctioning Ukraine hard by pulling military and intelligence support. The latter cost real lives.
So what is Trump going to do now?
Putin just smashed the ball back into Trump’s court who is now desperately backtracking trying to keep the ball in play. But his response will be important in signalling to all parties, but particularly Putin, whether Trump really is willing to use stick against Russia.
Putin smells weakness. He has seen that throughout this negotiation process with Trump who already threw away most of his negotiating hand with Putin before anyone sat down to begin the game of negotiations - saying Russia can keep all territory it currently occupies, plus no NATO for Ukraine, no security guarantees for Ukraine and the desire to quickly lift sanctions on Russia. Putin will look to exploit this weakness and the seeming desire of Trump to win Putin’s favour at the expense of Zelensky and Ukraine.
Is Trump really willing to play tough with Putin in order to get peace in Ukraine?