Posted on 05/29/2025 5:33:20 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
President Trump appeared to give Vladimir Putin a hard deadline for ending the war in Ukraine — as the Kremlin revealed Thursday the Russian leader has no plans to pow wow with the commander-in-chief.
“We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently, but it will take about a week and a half to two weeks,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday.
Asked whether Putin wanted to end the war, Trump said, “I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”
Trump — who earlier warned that the Russian prez was “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in cease-fire talks — added that he was “very disappointed” with Moscow’s recent barrage of missile and drone attacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If there is one thing someone like Putin (someone who believes they answer to no one) hates, it’s a deadline, or ultimatum.
They would dismiss or defy it purely for the sake of it having been brought.
As a casual observer with no particular insight, it appears to me Putin is playing Trump.
One of Trump’s strengths is that if one position doesn’t work out, he is pragmatic enough to try something different. He is not wedded to an intractable position on things. The media see this as a fault because they think in ideological terms. Trump is not ideological.
Trump should give up and let Russia and Ukraine duke it out. Neither side wants peace. He should stop funding Ukraine.
Enough with the moral equivalency. Russia wants to subjugate Ukraine; Ukraine just wants to be left alone.
“President Trump gives Putin deadline to prove he’s serious about ending the war in Ukraine”
And if he doesn’t, Trump will destroy the US economy by self-imposing an effective trade embargo against India, China, and probably many other countries, due to their continued trade with Russia.
Sounds like a winning strategy to me!
Same sort of deadline Trump gave Hamas to release all hostages or else? And didn’t follow through?
Mr. Trump has leverage with Zelensky - he can reduce or stop US aid to Ukraine. However, Mr. Trump has little leverage with Putin, other than escalating the conflict, which would be ineffably stupid. And Mr. Trump is not a stupid man - he would never have intervened in a conflict between belligerents that were formerly part of the same country, in an armpit of the world most Americans can't find on a map, where the US has no vital interests, no clear path to victory, and no obvious exit strategy. Mr. Biden, being both stupid and corrupt, chose to intervene, and Mr. Trump is doing his best to play the cards he's been dealt by Biden and Biden's equally brain-dead supporters...
Trump wasn’t elected to try to dictate the outcome of this war.
Trump wasn’t elected to try to dictate the outcome of this war.
Ukraine isn't a country, and it has no will of its own. Half of it wants to be with Russia, the other half is an EU-Brussels colony
Military Summary Channel
https://youtu.be/jNvlc-edisc
Facts on the ground.
And you know how that story ended.
I say we should leave them alone too. Quit funding them, sending weapons and messing around in their business.
We need to Leave them alone because that is what Zelensky wants.
Not true. But I assume you know that.
Many complex problems here—some are historic. Name calling and moralizing will not solve anything. Both sides have done bad things—its called WAR. Many believe all the propaganda they were fed as children that all things evil and ungodly come from Russia. I remember the 1950s propaganda, Comic Books given to students showing how horrible life was in the USSR.I was 15 before I realized that it didn’t always snow in Russia. Many evil blamed on the Soviet State we now embrace—Like both husbands and wives work. USSR is gone now.
“They would dismiss or defy it purely for the sake of it having been brought.”
Trump knows that. It’s all part of his plan to end the war.
Do you really think that India, China and those other countries would choose trade with Russia over trade with us? They would cut Russia off in a heartbeat. It is not in their national interest to beggar themselves to save Russia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.