Despite Donald Trump’s campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, and despite his team’s overall move-fast-and-break-things approach, the administration’s approach to the now nearly three-year-old conflict started out slowly.

Although the White House announced plans to seek a ceasefire deal, Trump made no moves at first to cut off aid to Ukraine and even threatened additional sanctions and tariffs on Moscow if Putin would not “STOP this ridiculous War.” Fears that Trump was simply going to sell out Ukraine for a quick deal with Russia appeared to have been overblown.

Until last week.

The dramatic shift began last Tuesday, when Steve Witkoff, the former real estate envoy whom Trump has tapped as his Middle East envoy, flew to Russia to conduct a prisoner exchange that secured the release of American teacher Marc Fogel, who had been jailed in Russia since 2021 on marijuana charges.

The next day, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the two sides would “start negotiations immediately.” Zelenskyy had not been informed about the call beforehand. That same day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a speech in Germany that it was unrealistic to think Ukraine would recover all its territory, that it was unlikely to ever join NATO, and that future defense guarantees for Ukraine would not be provided by US or NATO troops. In some sense, Hegseth was only saying out loud what many had long been saying privately, but critics charged that he was effectively making concessions to Russia before talks even began. (Hegseth partly walked back the remarks.)

Then, at the annual Munich Security Conference last weekend, Vice President JD Vance, gave a speech that barely mentioned the war at all and suggested that censorship and restrictions on far-right political parties were a greater threat to Europe than Russia. At Munich, Zelenskyy rejected a US proposal that Ukraine sign away rights to half of its critical minerals in exchange for military support, citing a lack of defense guarantees as part of the deal.

On Tuesday, US and Russian negotiators met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for talks, not only on the war but also on reestablishing diplomatic and economic links between the two superpowers. Zelenskyy canceled a planned trip to Saudi Arabia in protest of Ukraine’s exclusion from the talks.

“One thing everyone has been saying forever — Biden, Trump, every congressman, senator, secretary of state — is ‘no negotiations for Ukraine without Ukraine,’” Oleksandra Ustinova, a Ukrainian member of parliament, told Vox. “Now we see at the table: There’s Russia sitting next to the US. No Ukraine at the table.”

Adding insult to injury, Trump gave a press conference on Tuesday in which he made several false claims about Ukraine that seemingly echo Russian talking points:

• Trump blamed Ukraine........
  

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