As Trump backs away, Russia puts sabotaged Istanbul deal back on the table

With Trump pulling back from the proxy war, Ukraine and NATO are forced to confront their abandonment of the Istanbul peace talks three years ago.

(Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

For a brief period, Kyiv and allied European capitals were hopeful that President Trump’s public frustration with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and threats of new sanctions on his government meant that the US was not abandoning the Ukraine proxy war after all.

That moment has now passed. In the aftermath of last week’s first Russia-Ukraine talks in three years, and a follow-up phone call between Trump and Putin on Monday, the US president is no longer talking tough against Moscow. Instead, the growing consensus is that Trump is set on walking away from a conflict that he has repeatedly stressed is “not my war.” According to European officials, “Trump never seemed invested in joining sanctions on Russia,” and his threats “appeared largely performative.” Their new impression is that Trump believes that “the war [is] Europe’s problem.”