After the August summit in Alaska and a series of talks in Washington, analysts have increasingly criticized Donald Trump's approach to resolving the war in Ukraine. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Max Hastings believes that Putin senses the West's weakness and seeks to exploit the situation to impose favorable conditions on the Kremlin.
According to the author, Russia's strikes and the protracted war have weakened the will of Ukrainians and forced many Western allies to accept scenarios with territorial concessions. This, Hastings emphasizes, is unfair, because Putin "has no legal right to even a piece of Ukrainian land."
He paid particular attention to the talks involving Trump spokesman Steve Witkoff, who called the Kremlin's promise not to attack after a peace deal a "breakthrough." However, for most diplomats, this statement was more evidence of American naivety than real progress.
Hastings notes that the Trump administration is operating in a business-dealing style: trying to close issues quickly for “headline news” rather than a long-term process of serious negotiations. This approach ignores the nature of autocrats, who, like Putin or Xi Jinping, rarely change their basic positions.
According to the columnist, Putin would agree to an agreement only for the sake of lifting sanctions, but even then he would insist on conditions unacceptable to Ukraine: renunciation of NATO, the EU, and any Western military presence.
The author believes that the most dangerous thing is that Trump continues to pressure Volodymyr Zelenskyy without putting real pressure on Putin. The supply of American weapons has been reduced, and financial assistance has actually been shifted to the shoulders of European partners.
“ Putin sees the weak will of the United States and the limited capabilities of Europe. Instead, Trump dreams of the Nobel Peace Prize and seeks a temporary ceasefire that would allow him to present himself as a peacemaker ,” Hastings concludes.
Thus, after decades of NATO deterring the Soviet threat, the current problem is the unpredictability of the United States itself. European leaders, according to the columnist, are trying to keep Trump from taking steps that could destroy Western unity, while Russia remains an aggressor seeking harm not only to Ukraine but also to the West itself.
