War in Ukraine: annoyed by Putin, Trump turns and promises weapons to kyiv while threatening Russia with sanctions
Opinion (with AFP)
Washington – By threatening Russia on Monday with “very severe” customs sanctions and by rearming Ukraine, Donald Trump seems to have operated on yet another flip -flop, claiming to be disenchanted by Vladimir Putin. It remains to be seen whether this is a real change of strategy, while the American president blows hot and cold on the war in Ukraine. The fact is that, despite his displayed impatience, the American president grants a new period – of 50 days – to the Russian president, who, three years after having launched it, always refuses to end the invasion of Ukraine. Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump has come closer to Vladimir Putin, while he is trying to honor his electoral promise to end the war in Ukraine – a goal he said, during the campaign, capable of reaching in just 24 hours. This made kyiv fear to be released in the open countryside, in particular after the virulent altercation with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the oval office in February. At the time, Trump called the latter as a “dictator without elections”, stressing that Ukraine had “no card in hand” against Russia. But the tone has changed in recent weeks, after a series of unsuccessful talks, Donald Trump clearly displaying his dissatisfaction with the Russian president. Vladimir Putin “speaks well” during the day and starts to bomb everyone in the evening “, he noted on Monday. Russian air strikes in Ukraine have recently intensified. Moscow broke records in number of vehicles drawn every week, provided by a defense industry that runs at full speed.” Dure to cook “Donald Trump, who has not hidden his admiration for the Russian leader “Always very good relationships”, had described it recently as “completely crazy”. “I do not mean that it is an assassin, but it is a hard to cook,” he said about the Russian president, also refusing any notion that he would be carried out by his counterpart. And he has not succeeded, “said Heather Conley, of the American Enterprise Institute, a circle of conservative reflection in Washington. The Democratic opposition quickly welcomed Mr. Trump’s turnaround, saying to the Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, “happy that he seems to be obvious to the responsibility of Putin in this insane and barbaric massacre of innocents”. Not openly provided its support on Monday to a bill which is the subject of a broad agreement to the Congress and which advocates customs duties of 500% imposed on countries, such as China, India and Brazil, which support the Russian war machine by buying cheap Russian oil and gas. The position of Ukraine and the West, wanting to win this conflict in its own words ”.