Russia’s War in Ukraine

Understanding the conflict four years on.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at how U.S. President Donald Trump is balancing the Russia-Ukraine and Iran wars, the European Union’s long-awaited trade deal with the United States, and Japan raising its interest rate to a 31-year high.

‘It Has No Impact on Us’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took the G-7 leaders’ summit by storm on Tuesday, calling on all attendees to bolster their military and diplomatic support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. But while most Western powers reiterated their commitment to Kyiv, Washington sang a slightly different tune.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at how U.S. President Donald Trump is balancing the Russia-Ukraine and Iran wars, the European Union’s long-awaited trade deal with the United States, and Japan raising its interest rate to a 31-year high.

‘It Has No Impact on Us’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took the G-7 leaders’ summit by storm on Tuesday, calling on all attendees to bolster their military and diplomatic support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. But while most Western powers reiterated their commitment to Kyiv, Washington sang a slightly different tune.

U.S. President Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday that the Russia-Ukraine war is not among his top priorities. “Look, we have nothing to do with it. It has no impact on us, other than we sell weapons” to Ukraine, Trump told reporters. He added, “We’re thousands of miles away.” Instead, the U.S. president stressed that his focus remains on Iran, though he argued that Tehran will be “in the rearview mirror” soon.

That is not to say that Trump has completely abandoned the issue. On Tuesday, he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should engage in peace talks with Zelensky—a proposal that the Ukrainian leader outlined in a rare open letter to Moscow published earlier this month. Trump described his discussion with Zelensky on Tuesday as “very good” and said that they planned to meet again later in the day. And he foreshadowed that the United States will be able to reimpose sanctions on Russian oil “soon” now that the Strait........

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