Shortly after his two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters, “This isn’t my war. We got ourselves entangled in something we shouldn’t have been involved in.”
Then, in his post phone call discussion with European leaders, he allegedly said, “I think Vladimir does not want peace.”
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Between May 24-25 May, Putin proved the President correct by launching 83 ballistic missiles and 548 drones against civilian targets in Ukraine – Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and other regions.
The next night, Russian forces conducted one of their largest single drone and missile strikes to date – nine Kh-101 cruise missiles and 355 Shahed and decoy drones were launched towards Ukraine.
Trump makes it a point to tell American’s, “It’s a war that would have never happened if I was president. It’s Biden’s war. It’s not my war. I have nothing to do with it. I would have never had this war. This war would have never happened. Putin would have never done it. This war would have never happened.”
But that has little significance right now. What matters is that 128 days into his administration – the war rages on despite his efforts to secure a ceasefire. This is his war now; he owns it by virtue of his persistent appeasement of Putin in pursuit of some elusive “deal.”
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Despite Trump’s latest post on X, Putin is not crazy. He is exploiting the only success his military has had in Ukraine – targeting civilians and critical energy infrastructure with ballistic missiles and drones, in an attempt to break their will to continue to resist.
That said, on Wednesday Trump told reporters he was “very disappointed” with Russia’s escalating attacks on Ukraine and that he would give Putin another two weeks before deciding how to respond.
How many more ballistic missiles and drones – from North Korea and Iran – will find their targets during that time frame? How many more Ukrainian civilians will be killed or wounded?
Putin and his generals have proven that General George S. Patton’s description of the Russian military mindset was correct: “The difficulty in understanding the Russian… [he] thinks deviously… I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them… the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all-out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.”
Trump is right about one thing though, “he [Putin] wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it.”
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made this very point on the CBS News program Face the Nation two weeks ago: “My own view, having dealt with him and having spent most of my life working on Russia and the Soviet Union, is Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire… As my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire.”
And probably not just Ukraine either – but also the other two non-NATO, non-European Union countries in the Black Sea region: Moldova and Georgia. In his latest terms for ending the war in Ukraine, he wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the NATO military alliance eastward,” putting the two countries squarely in Russia’s crosshairs.
Just listen to what they are saying. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made Putin’s end state quite clear in April when he said, “Russia will accept nothing less than total victory over Ukraine.”
The more the White House pulls back, the more the Kremlin leans in.
The President may believe he is “only helping to put out the big and ugly fires that have been started.” But in fact, he is fanning them. Putin sees his actions as a green light to finish the “special military operation” he began in February 2022.
Trying to burden share any blame upon Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is counterproductive. This is all on Putin. Zelensky, his soldiers, and the men and women of Ukraine are simply defending their country.
The question is – what is he going to do about it? Wait apparently, along with the decision to vote on Senator (Republican–South Carolina) Lindsey Graham’s “bone crushing sanctions” package.
Applying pressure while “waiting” is a better solution. Russia will never take the US seriously if Washington keeps playing by its rules. Waiting for Putin to respond only provides him with what he really needs – more time.
He needs an incentive – a position at which Europe may have finally arrived.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Monday “There are no longer any restrictions on the range of weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine – neither from the British side, nor from the French side, nor from our side. There are none from the Americans either.”
That is long overdue – the interdiction of Russian forces, weapons, and ammunition before it arrives on the Ukrainian battlefield is essential. So too is the immediate implementation of the European Sky Shield initiative, coupled with an integrated, layered air defense network like the one Israel employed to defeat Iran’s attacks in April and October 2024.
Germany’s recent announcement of a $5.65 billion aid package to Ukraine is a step in the right direction. It includes funding the production of long-range weapons systems inside Ukraine, a commitment to supply Ukraine with critical ammunition and weapons – including air defense systems and artillery – and funding a significant portion of Starlink satellite coverage for Ukraine.
But it cannot be more of the failed Biden strategy of “just enough.” It cannot be about simply getting Russia to the negotiation table – it has to be about the defeat of Russian forces in Ukraine. Stopping short is no longer an option. Peace will only take place when Russia can no longer attack Ukraine.
Europe is in the Bear’s crosshairs – the deployment of a German Tank Brigade to Lithuania will not have any impact on the war in Ukraine. Ballistic missiles and drones striking Kyiv today could very well strike Paris, Berlin, Prague or Warsaw a couple years from now.
The ball is now clearly in Europe’s court.
Now is the time to enable Ukraine to make good on Patton’s advice: “If it should be necessary to fight the Russians, the sooner we do it the better… If we have to fight them, now is the time. From now on, we will get weaker, and they will get stronger.”
Copyright 2025. Jonathan E. Sweet and Mark C. Toth. All rights reserved.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.
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