🔒 Ukraine Ceasefire finally under consideration: Jessica Karl

Key topics:

Ukraine seeks a 30-day ceasefire; Russia’s response is pending.
Trump aligns with Putin, pressuring Ukraine on NATO and territorial losses.
U.S. may restore aid, but Trump’s Russia ties raise concerns.

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By Jessica Karl ___STEAD_PAYWALL___

Ukraine Is Down

This just in: Ukraine says it’s ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire. Still waiting on Russia’s response, but it sounds … promising? Though, promising doesn’t exactly feel like the right word.

On TV, President Donald Trump is happy to claim that nobody’s been tougher than him on Russia, but Marc Champion says that couldn’t be further from the truth: Nobody — including Trump — has been weaker.

“The ledger on Trump’s toughness toward Russia looks dramatically different since he retook the White House,” he says. In the span of less than three months, Trump has turned the public psyche against Ukraine and Europe while capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin at every turn. “Putin has made any ceasefire talks conditional on a number of elements, the core of which is no NATO membership, acceptance of his territorial annexations, plus unconstitutional elections aimed at sowing division in Ukraine and removing Zelenskiy from power,” writes Marc. “Trump has either granted or pressed for all of these conditions.”

Ukraine, on the other hand, was stripped of military and intelligence support after Zelenskiy asked for security guarantees to insure against further invasions. Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated the US will reverse that decision now that Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire, the message is clear: “Trump feels a personal bond with Russia’s leader, and that this has strengthened since his first term,” Marc explains.

Writing in The Atlantic today, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said the president’s approach to foreign policy centers on one question: “What benefits Donald Trump?” If this was some elaborate ploy for the president to get a Nobel Peace Prize, I don’t think it’ll work out. To win that, Andreas Kluth says he’d have to lower the risk of nuclear Armageddon. Good luck getting your buddy Putin on board with that.

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Key topics:

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