Opinion

Don’t look now, but President Trump may have saved Ukraine. Just ask the Russians

From the infamous Oval Office meeting to long-range drones threatening Russian supply lines, negative predictions were wrong

By Victoria Coates Fox News

Published June 12, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Ukraine Ambassador slams Putin's rejection of peace talks with Zelenskyy

Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishyna reacts to Putin's rejection of Zelenskyy's peace talk offer. She discusses the importance of continued U.S. support, Russia's war losses and the need for Ukraine to scale up its defense capabilities.

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During the 2024 presidential campaign, many Democrats — and quite a few Republicans — darkly predicted President Donald Trump would hand Ukraine to Russian strong man Vladimir Putin on a silver platter if elected.

In his desperation to get a quick deal, the argument went, Trump would give President Putin everything he wanted, and Ukraine would revert to being a Russian vassal state. Democracy would die and an emboldened Putin would start eyeing NATO members as he put the Soviet Union back together.

None of this has come to pass.

To be honest, the situation in Ukraine has not gone as Trump expected during the first 18 months of his second term. As he has often said, he expected Ukraine to be the easiest to solve of the Biden-era messes he inherited — and it has turned out to be the most difficult.

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