Kyle Cave

Staff Writer

From belittling Zelensky in front of the entire world, to bringing Vladimir Putin back to the world stage, Trump’s strategy on Ukraine has been full of victim-blaming, broken promises and constant enabling.

The war in Ukraine has been going on for the past 3 years. The United States’ strategy has been to give Ukraine weapons and aid and allow them to defend themselves. Former President Joe Biden understood that Ukrainian sovereignty not only needs to be guaranteed solely for moral purposes, but for European security.

Donald Trump, during the 2024 presidential campaign, campaigned on a different strategy for Ukraine: ending the war. In his own words, Trump has said he would end the war in Ukraine on the first day of his presidency.

When Trump took office for the second time, his very first meeting with Zelensky consisted of Trump and Vance belittling Zelensky for not wearing a suit, discussing aid for the war, and accusations of  “gambling with World War 3.” It was arguably one of the most abhorrent displays when it came to the treatment of a foreign leader the country has seen. Zelensky was even kicked out of the White House after the meeting.

Even Russia’s government was absolutely shocked at how the President of the United States was repeating Russian talking points to Zelensky.

Since this meeting, the Trump administration has been essentially flip-flopping between both sides of this war. There are times when Trump tells Ukraine that they have the United States’ full backing. Then there are times when Trump will repeat Russian talking points about conceding Ukrainian territory to Russia or giving grace to Putin.

For example, take the Russia summit in Alaska that happened back in August. Trump invited Putin to Alaska, which is already a significant win for Putin. Alaska used to belong to Russia, number one, and number two, an invitation to American soil while you are waging a deadly war on a population, signals to that leader that they are welcomed back to the world stage.

The summit itself was a massive victory for Putin and a monumental failure for Trump. The very purpose of the meeting was to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and that was not achieved. Another factor was that Zelensky was not invited to this summit. When you are trying to get a war resolved, both leaders must sit down at the table for negotiations. If you are only speaking to one side, the trust level will not be present.

After the Putin summit, there was eventually a Trump-Zelensky summit. This summit, just as the summit with Putin, was a massive failure. Trump invited European leaders to The White House, including Zelensky, to discuss the future of the war. This summit did not produce a ceasefire either, which was the entire point of both summits.

Not only that, in the middle of the private Oval Office meetings between the European leaders, Trump took a phone call with Putin. During that call with Putin, a trilateral meeting was promised by Trump, which required Zelensky and Putin to meet one-on-one. This never happened, and the idea that a leader of a country should sit down alone with the person waging war on their country with no signs of stopping is outrageous.

Then comes October 2025, when Zelensky comes to The White House to meet with Trump. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the possibility of giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles.

During their private meeting, The Financial Times reported that Trump demanded that Zelensky accept Putin’s terms to end the war or “be destroyed.” This came after Trump once again repeated the pattern he always does: Talk on the phone with Putin, then change his tone based on what Putin tells him.

Trump’s strategy on Ukraine has been a massive disservice. Trump and the administration are essentially trying to both-side the conflict and sweet-talk Putin into making a peace deal with Ukraine. It’s been very clear he’s not interested.

The Trump administration finally placed more sanctions on Russia and Russian oil on October 22. These sanctions will most likely not change much in Putin’s strategy of trying to take Ukraine for himself.

Putin has been taking advantage of his return to the world stage through the summit. In September 2025, Russian drones were flying over Polish NATO airspaces. This is a way of intimidating NATO countries.

It is understandable to want wars to come to an end. The war in Ukraine has been a very bloody conflict that has exhausted the Ukrainian people to their core. But ending a war and surrendering are two different things.

The Trump administration wants to end this conflict by catering to the aggressor of the war rather than its ally and the country that was invaded. Ukraine ending the war right now requires them to surrender, whether that be a region of Ukraine or even all of Ukraine.

Surrendering is not fair to Ukraine, nor is it moral. Ukraine did not ask for Russia to invade its land, nor did it ask for Russia to take it for itself. The big reason the Biden administration continued to fund Ukraine as it did, was because it knew Putin was not going to stop the war until he got Ukraine in its entirety.

Plus, the Biden administration knew Putin is a bad actor. Putin has a track record of saying he will abide by ceasefires and treaties, but never follows through with any of them, including on Ukraine. Now we have an administration that wants to give someone who is suspected of murdering his own opponents and has committed several war crimes the benefit of the doubt. It is a foolish endeavor.

New sanctions on Russia are a good gesture, but they do not solve this problem. Ukraine needs one hundred percent backing when it comes to fighting for sovereignty, and deserves every tool in the shed to be able to do so.

The Trump administration continuing to play this game of footsies with Russia will embolden Putin to do something very dangerous. The U.S. needs to back Ukraine by means necessary. If it doesn’t, the precedent it sets will not be pretty in the future.