Trump May Need to Walk Away and Cut Ukraine Off
He may have exhausted other pathways to peace and Ukraine must know that it cannot win on the battlefield
Ukraine’s attacks on Russia bases and aircraft on June 1 has sent the media and Ukraine’s supporters in Congress and Europe into a flurry of triumphal metaphors and hyperbole, from “David and Goliath” to “daring”, “stunning”, “audacious” and one “bad-ass” operation.
Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit, including strategic bombers and surveillance planes, with some destroyed and others damaged. This unfortunately has unleashed a week of attacks on both sides, but the most fierce from Russia, which over the course of Monday and Tuesday, launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Kviv, Karkhiv, and Odessa, hitting civilian areas including one administrative building of a maternity ward. If the gloves weren’t off, they are coming off now with a seeming vengeance.
In a matter of days, the peace process, already struggling for oxygen, seems as if on life support. President Trump has threatened to walk away and has expressed his share of frustration with both Presidents Putin and Zelensky. The second round of talks in Istanbul seemed to have bore no fruit, with both sides issuing demands that the Quincy Institute’s Anatol Lieven called “completely mutually incompatible” suggesting “that at present neither side is in fact interested in an early peace.”
So where does this renewed fighting leave efforts to end this war? Will the Russians choose to just keep fighting and taking territory through the summer? How much can Ukraine take? Will the US at some point cut off aid? Will Europe be able to step in and fill the gap?
Here to talk about this on the show are two good friends and experts, George Beebe, the director of the Grand Strategy program at the Quincy Institute, and Mark Episkopos, Eurasia Research Fellow.
More from George:
What the giddy reaction to Ukraine's surprise attacks says about us
More from Mark:
Despite war, Moscow is booming
For US in Georgia, political meddling is a hard habit to break