Donald Trump does not understand that Russia will not award him for political concessions
Russia has never trusted the United States and remains an enemy towards them. When Trump said he trusted the Russian leader Vladimir Putin the day before a quarrel with President Volodymyr Zelnski in the White House, Moscow replied that Russia does not trust Americaalthough he hopes that both countries will be able to “go from confrontational to unconfrontal coexistence.”
An experienced Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims that Washington and Moscow agree that foreign policy should be rooted in national interests. However, Russia has no illusions about the US's passion to perform twists and turns. Does Trump realize what Russia thinks about him and his country?
Trump delayed that Russia wants to take over more Ukrainian territory than controls as a price for peace and that The main goal of Russia is to conquer Ukraine. Even Trump can't support Russian aggression. Washington confirmed that negotiations must precede the suspension of weapons and called for a diplomatic solution to the war.
Putin withdrew from his own call to direct conversations with Zelanski in Istanbul on May 15. His words about “removing the causes of war” mean that Ukraine should accept the conquest through Russia. And a meeting with Zelanski would mean recognizing him as a sovereign leader of Ukraine.
Why strong America agrees to the demands of weak Russia
Initially, Trump was ready to devote the territorial and legal status of Ukraine to convince Russia to stop war in Ukraine. Having accepted the narrative about the war, he blamed Ukraine with its ambitions to join NATO as Casus Bella illegal attack of Russia.
In return, Russia awarded Trump complex criticism and frustration. Russia believes that Trump will not remove the entire American nuclear weapon or withdraw all American troops from Europe, but will restore them to the level before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Donald Trump and Wołodymyr Zelnski during a quarrel in the White House. Washington, February 28, 2025
At a different level Moscow was satisfied as evidence of Washington's pragmatism. “Common sense is his motto,” Lavrov commented sarcastically, saying that Trump's America is seeking to be the number one country in the world and noticed the president's arrogance: “He now has a new hat: Trump was right in everything.”
This opinion about the United States and Trump thwarted plans that could be called “trust and friendship.”
What makes Trump's more comprehensive diplomacy so unique and significant? It is rare for a stronger power to join demands and repeat the political narrative of a weaker power, but This is how Washington did Even before the Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Lavrov in Riyadh on February 18.
Then, after cutting off military and intelligence for Ukraine, Trump supported a brutal Russian rocket and drone attack on Ukraine as “what everyone would do”. By condemning Ukraine as an obstacle on the road to peace, he suspended military assistance for Ukraine. Only recently he asked Putin to stop firing rockets in civil areas. But it was not a reprimand, considering that after meeting Zelnski in Rome at the funeral of Pope Francis, he added that Kiev was ready to give Crimea.
Donald Trump and Wołodymyr Zelnski in the Vatican, April 26, 2025.
Apparently Trump allowed himself to duplicity, which Moscow interpreted as a suggestion that he would use American pressure on Ukraine in favor of Russia. This inspired Lavrov to state that “the guarantees could only exist in the form of a directive from Washington to Zelanski and his team.”
Russian hypocrisy
The dominance of the United States as the only superpower – which Russia perceives with jealousy and hostility – probably prompted Moscow to consider such ideas when Washington seemed to have a chance to intimidate Kiev. Such a “directive” would reflect the fact that neither America nor Russia care for the territorial integrity of Ukrainealthough it results from international law. In fact, Trump supported the Russian plunder of the Earth and approved the occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. For Moscow, they are independent negotiations of Russia.
Ukraine's territorial sovereignty is the most important issue for Moscow, Kiev and the international community. In March, the Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Szojgu in a surprising way stated that Territorial integrity, recorded in the constitution of Ukraine, is the main obstacle on the road to peace. You, Samum, again shifted responsibility for peace to Ukraine, which is a victim of Russian aggression.
Initially, Moscow and Washington were deliberately silent that art. 4 of the Russian constitution says that “the Russian Federation ensures integrity and inviolability of its territory.” When they oppose the Ukraine to do the same, They are guilty of at least double standards.
Russia recognized the inviolability of the international borders of Ukraine after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, and then together with the Western signatories of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. Post -Soviet Russia signed border agreements with equal and sovereign Ukraine in 1997 and 2003. However, former President Bill Clinton, one of the signatories of Memorandum Budapeszteński, one of the signatories reminded that Putin has never accepted the allegedly democratic agreement of President Boris Jeltsin about respect for the territorial borders of Ukraine. This is the main explanation of Russia's destructive approach to contracts signed with Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing attempt to conquer Ukraine.
What the Russians really think about Americans
Trump's carefree approach to Ukraine's territorial integrity also influenced the double perception of modern Washington by Russia. On the one hand, Trump's arrogance in terms of territorial integrity, reflected in his declared readiness to use military force to take over Greenland, prompted Lavrov to record a new coincidence between Russia and America in disregarding this principle. He claimed that Washington understood Russia's position regarding the Ukrainian territories she annexes. Lavrov had the impression that the Americans accepted “a comparison, according to which Ukraine is much more important for Russia's national security than Greenland for US national security.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during a press conference in Helsinki, July 16, 2018.
On the other hand, Moscow went to the offensive against Trump, signaling that Washington's interest in Greenland can be contrary to Russia's determination to maintain sovereignty and strategic interests and strengthen its military abilities in the Arctic region. Because such a strengthening would be directed against the United States, can Washington explain how this would accelerate the main goal of Trump, which is great to make America great?
Trump can only approve the peace agreement on Russia, Forcing Ukraine to make territorial concessions and remain beyond NATO. Moscow remains adamant that no negotiations should increase the “military potential” of Ukraine and insist on international recognition of the Russian Eastern occupation of Ukraine and Crimea.
As Trump is still on the side of Putin, who insists on his, Western Europe's democracies must guard the international law and territorial integrity of Ukrainenot only to stop Russia's expansionism in Europe, but also China in Southeast Asia.
If not the USA under Trump, They should stand on the side of Ukraine And other countries that see the benefits of order based on the principles against imperialist oppressors who make the world a more dangerous place. It will be much smarter than hope for peace transactions with insidious Russia.
First of all, the victory of independent Ukraine will increase the safety of European democracy Before a fundamentally hostile Russia, inciting the war.
