LOS ANGELES (OC).—-President Donald Trump went against his best judgment imposing new sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil accounting for over 5% of Russian oil output. Trump was reluctant to resort to new sanctions knowing it could boomerang with Russian President Vladimir Putin being less inclined to settle the Ukraine War. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Trump for imposing new sanction on Russia, claiming it’s the only way to get Putin to peace table. But Zelensky has been the one reluctant to go to the peace table knowing he’d have to admit he’s lost some 25% of Ukraine best sovereign territory to the Kremlin over the last three-and-a-half years of war. Zelensky has been pushing the U.S. and EU to hit the Kremlin with more economic sanctions to push Russia into a 30-day ceasefire but, so far, Putin hasn’t budged an inch.
China and India signaled that they would suspend oil purchases from the Russian Federation, something Putin said would affect global oil markets. At a time when the EU complains about the high cost of energy, more Russian sanctions could spike world petroleum prices, causing an increased in prices. Trump was pressure by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) and other senators to sign onto a new sanctions bill to try to push Putin into a ceasefire. Putin called the new sanctions “an unfriendly act,” while Deputy Russian National Security Council co-president Dmitry Medvedev called the new sanctions “an act of war.” Medevdevv called Trump the “talkative peacemaker” who now has joined the sanctions movement because he can’t get Putin to sign onto a 30-day ceasefire. Putin wants the U.S. to first deal with root causes to the Ukaine War.
Putin reacted unfavorably to Trump’s new sanctions, saying it was an obvious attempt to pressure Russia into a ceasefire. “This is, of course, an attempt to pressure Russia,” Putin said. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure,” signaling that it won’t work. Trump let his frustrations get the better of him, hearing it all the time from members of Congress that he must take more forceful steps to get Putin to the peace table. Trump knows that coercion doesn’t work with Putin and could no doubt backfire, delaying whatever prospects for peace still exist. Zelensky has been pushing EU allies to supply him with long-range missiles to strike at Russian’s oil infrastructure the main economic driver of his war. But Putin has more resources than just oil revenue to keep the war going indefinitely, putting Zelensky on notice.
Trump probably made a mistake running against his instincts to get on Putin’s bad side. Sanctioning Russia again only make Putin leery of Trump past efforts to reset U.S.-Russian relations after years under former President Joe Biden’s proxy war. Putin know that Trump is sincere when it comes to improving U.S.-Russian relations but wants to send a loud message that he wants to end the Ukraine War. Putin said striking deep inside Russia with long-range missiles would be “very serious, if not overwhelming,” meaning there would be a Russian response. Trump was right not to push Putin into signing a ceasefire deal until he was convinced that Zelensky was ready to accept Russian control over Ukrainian territory. Putin isn’t interest in peace at any expense, wanting Zelensky to get real about ending the war. Only a land-for-peace deal works for Putin.
Trump announced that he was cancelling his upcoming meeting with Putin in Budapest, giving the world some hope that things could move along. “We canceller the meeting with President Putin—it just didn’t feel right to me,” Trump told reporters at the White House.”It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we’ll do it in the future,” Trump said, not wanting a repeat of the Aug. 15 summit in Anchorage, Alaska. “The president and the entire administration hopes that one day that could happen again, but we want to make sure that there’s a tangible positive outcome,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Whether admitted to or no by the White House, Zelensky and the EU have been a bigger obstacle to peace than Putin. Trump agrees with Putin that Zelensky will have to trade land-for-peace.
Hitting Russia with new sanctions was the exact wrong approach to ending the Ukraine War with Putin. He needs a more methodical process where Russian and Ukrainian delegations meet behind closed door to work out the deals of a lasting pace. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there’s no substitute to dealing with the root cause of the war, having to do with U.S. and NATO encroaching on the Russian Federation. Whether former President Joe Biden began arming Ukraine to the teeth on the Russian border it ran afoul with the Kremlin. Putin asked Biden, before the Feb. 24, 2022 invastion, to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine, something Biden ignored. When Putin moved 250,000 troop into Ukraine, everyone got the message that Putin was serious. Trump wants to solve the problem but Zelensky an the EU must get on the same page.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
