РУССКИЙ
11:56 09.09.2025 •
Pic.: inforuss.info
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are on the same page again, CNN stresses.
The US and Russian presidents are now both singling out Europe as stasis envelops efforts to end the Ukraine war three weeks after their high-profile but low-impact summit in Alaska.
Trump called on Europe to do more in a call with European leaders on Thursday — even though the only incremental diplomatic activity to do with the war is coming from US transatlantic allies as they try to work out security guarantees to protect Ukraine after any peace deal.
The latest twist in the president’s erratic Ukraine diplomacy came a day after he told reporters he planned to speak with Putin again soon so he could work out “what we’re going to be doing.” He refused to say whether he’d sign off on severe direct sanctions on Russia if Putin continued to slow his peace initiative after the Russian president ignored repeated two-week deadlines, the latest of which expires on Friday. “Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it, or unhappy. And if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office on last Wednesday.
Trump did speak to Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, along with the other European leaders. The Ukrainian president said afterward that the conversation covered economic pressure on Russia and “depriving Russia’s war machine of money.”
But the message from the US side after the conversation faulted the Europeans more than Russia.
Trump “emphasized that Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that is funding the war — as Russia received €1.1 billion in fuel sales from the EU in one year,” a White House official said after the call. “The president also emphasized that European leaders must place economic pressure on China for funding Russia’s war efforts,” the official said.
On one hand, Trump has a point. Given the grave security threat that European nations perceive from Russia, it’s odd that there would be any European Union countries still buying Russian energy at a time when the West has imposed sanctions to try to debilitate Moscow’s economy since the beginnings of SMO in 2022.
Still, like many of Trump’s positions on the war, his pressure on Europe contains illogical and even hypocritical elements. After all, he’s demanding that Europe take on China over its Russian oil purchases when he’s not prepared to sanction Beijing himself. The United States is locked in trade talks with the Chinese after the president unleashed a trade war with high tariffs despite rather unfavorable US cards. Trump seems loath to do anything that will harm his chances of a deal.
In Alaska, Putin warned — as he stood side-by-side with a US president who has frequently criticized America’s allies — that Europe should not “throw a wrench in the works” of his diplomacy with Trump.
There is also no sign of the meeting between Putin and Zelensky that White House officials confidently predicted would take place as soon as two weeks ago. Putin did offer to hold talks in Moscow. But since it would be impossible for Zelensky to feel secure in such a venue, this came across as yet another example of obstruction.
Trump had once suggested he’d be involved as a third party in such talks, but he’s reverted to the Russian position that a one-on-one should happen first. Ukraine’s allies worry that Putin would orchestrate a confrontation in a bilateral meeting that he could then use to argue to Trump that Zelensky had sabotaged the process.
Following the call between Trump, Zelensky and members of the “Coalition of the Willing” Ukrainian allies, French President Emmanuel Macron said that 26 countries had pledged contributions to a potential peacekeeping force if a ceasefire deal is finalized.
At the end of another week of very little movement toward peace in Ukraine, it’s no wonder, as CNN’s Alayna Treene reported, that Trump is getting frustrated.
But there are few signs that he’s got a big idea to break the logjam.
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