Trump Believes Russia Will Win In Ukraine, It’s Just A Matter Of How Long

“The president’s view is Russia is going to win, it’s a matter of how long it takes,” said a senior, unnamed White House official to Politico this week, reflecting on President Trump’s view on where the war stands.

“Russia has the bigger economy, has the bigger military, has more than enough bodies to throw into the meat grinder, and just doesn’t care. And although they are making slow progress, they are still making progress,” the official added. “The president just wants to stop the killing.”

Indeed the last several weeks have seen clear Russian gains on the ground in Eastern Ukraine, with a steady flow of reports of towns, settlements, and villages being newly captured in Donetsk and elsewhere.

There’s been some confusion over Trump’s policy in arming Kiev. He has gone further than he ever has before in approving new anti-air defense systems, but still appears to be ruling out long-range offensive weapons, amid conflicting reports.

Has realism finally set in concerning Washington policy? It should have been evident from the start of this horrific ‘war of attrition’ that Ukraine was never going to win.

Still, Zelensky has resisted doing the one thing which could end the war – make territorial concessions. He hasn’t so much as offered to give up Crimea.

Zelensky is still lobbying Washington for a major new weapons package which would ‘send a message’ to Putin:

“President Trump and all of America and Europe know that we want peace and an end to the war,” Zelenskyy said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax correspondent Shelby Wilder in Kyiv. “But the Russians understand only force. So, only strong sanctions and only strong weapons. We are ready for action, for a demonstration of force.

“I remember that we had a powerful deterrence package before President Trump became president. I wanted America to sell us such a package. But it was not done. We talked to President Trump about these things. I would really like us to be strong. A demonstration of strength forces Putin to the negotiating table. It is not a fact that we will have to use this force, but if Russia knows about its existence, it is already a strong argument for ending the war.”

Trump has pivoted to placing more of the responsibility for assisting Ukraine on NATO. For example, during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte he emphasized that Europeans must finally pay their fair share.

“We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it,” Trump said while invoking “very rich” European allies. “They feel very strongly about it, and we feel strongly about it too, but we’re in for a lot of money, and we just, we don’t want to do [it] any more.”