It can feel a bit head-spinning trying to track President Donald Trump’s evolving stance on the war in Ukraine, with his position on critical issues often apparently determined by whom he most recently spoke with.
European leaders were elated when, ahead of Trump’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in mid-August, he endorsed Ukraine’s position that a ceasefire along the current battle lines was a necessary condition for any talks about a permanent settlement. But Trump soon abandoned that stance when it became clear that it was a non-starter with Putin.
Since then, Trump has blown hot and cold on the issue. Following a call with Putin last week, he even briefly endorsed a Russian proposal for Kyiv to cede the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province in exchange for Russian troops withdrawing from much of southern Ukraine—an idea that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept during a tense White House meeting last Friday.
