George Rebane
The ongoing situation in Ukraine is totally asymmetrical – Russia intensifies its bombing and battlefield assaults while the West jawbones and regurgitates threats that don’t materialize. Meanwhile Trump is basking in the revised and reconstructed interpretation of the disastrous Anchorage outcome – talk about lipstick on a pig. He now believes his own press clippings and claims that he always wanted to skip a cease fire and go immediately into negotiating a peace treaty to end the war.
This is an obvious page out of Putin’s much publicized playbook. There is ample evidence of Trump’s pre-Anchorage demands for an immediate ceasefire, which if not agreed to by Putin would result in immediate implementation of secondary economy crippling sanctions on Russia and the upgrading of Ukraine’s military with EU purchased US weapons.
In the meantime Putin repeats his prerequisites for peace, demanding he keeps conquered lands, get additional relinquished strategic territory, prevents Ukraine from maintaining an effective military, and prohibits Ukraine from ever joining NATO. His intentions during such a hiatus is to rebuild/refurbish the Russian army, and then complete the conquest of Ukraine either physically or politically as a satrap a la Belorussia.
To put a bow on Putin’s contempt for western leaders and the West’s initiatives was unmistakably shown last night when he bombed an American built and operated factory in Ukraine.
Trump allowing this asymmetry to continue indicates that he is again (still?) unclear on Putin’s goals and MO for achieving them. All he can tell his devoted audiences is that he is “very unhappy” with Putin’s response and the lack of progress toward a trilateral meeting with Zelinsky in attendance, followed by a bilateral meeting during which Zelinsky has only a knife to bring to a gunfight.
To their credit, there are a few reputable commentators on FN and FB who are echoing the above sentiments. But it all seems to be water off the Donald’s back.
[Later] Just out is WSJ’s 22aug25 editorial on the matter (here). It agrees with my harangue above and points out, “The question now is how quickly Mr. Trump concludes he’s being played again, and the evidence is mixed.” (emphasis mine re Anchorage)
In criticizing the former president, “Mr. Biden, or whoever was running his Ukraine policy, had no strategy for victory. But Mr. Trump has also been reluctant to open up U.S. weapons stores and give Ukraine a real long-range missile arsenal and the freedom to use it.”
WSJ concludes that “All the happy smiles of diplomacy won’t make a difference unless Mr. Putin thinks that the cost to him of continuing the war is higher than the risk of ending it. … It’s past time for Mr. Trump to apply secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil and gas. That might get China’s attention. Here’s another idea: Confiscate each week a portion of the $300 billion in Russian reserves frozen in the West as long as the bombing continues. The hard truth is that a durable peace in Ukraine isn’t likely without a much harder policy from Mr. Trump.”
rebanesruminations.com 
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