Despite promises during his 2024 campaign to quickly end the war, Trump now finds himself increasingly frustrated with Putin’s continued resistance to ceasefire negotiations. Sources familiar with the situation told Axios that the president confided to trusted aides that he underestimated Putin’s willingness to pursue genuine peace talks.
The admission comes nearly a month after Trump hosted Putin for a high-profile summit in Alaska on August 15, where the two leaders met at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson but failed to reach any concrete agreement. Despite warning that Putin would face “severe consequences” if he didn’t agree to a ceasefire or take concrete steps toward peace, Trump has yet to impose the threatened new sanctions.
Since the Alaska meeting, Putin has continued to reject both ceasefire proposals and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Russian forces have maintained their military offensive against Ukraine. The Kremlin announced on Friday that peace talks are now “on pause,” with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that negotiations are “more accurate to talk about a pause” rather than active dialogue.
Instead of directly confronting Russia with new sanctions, Trump’s administration has shifted the burden of pressuring Putin to European allies, according to multiple reports. The White House has urged the European Union to impose additional sanctions on Moscow and China for purchasing Russian oil, while Trump himself has focused primarily on tariffs against India.
On Saturday, Trump set new conditions for imposing sanctions on Russia, posting on Truth Social that he would only act “when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA”. He called for NATO allies to impose 50% to 100% tariffs on China and cease all Russian oil purchases, measures that analysts consider unlikely to be met.
Trump’s patience with Putin appeared to reach a breaking point after Russian drones violated Polish airspace on Wednesday, marking the first time a NATO member has engaged militarily during the Ukraine conflict. However, Trump drew criticism from European allies when he suggested the drone incursion “could have been a mistake,” contradicting Polish officials who called it a deliberate attack.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk directly rebutted Trump’s assessment, posting on social media: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it”.
[inline_related_posts title=”RECOMMENDED” title_align=”left” style=”list” number=”2″ align=”none” ids=”” by=”primary_cat” orderby=”rand” order=”DESC” hide_thumb=”no” thumb_right=”no” views=”no” date=”yes” grid_columns=”2″ post_type=”” tax=””]
On Friday, Trump told Fox News that his patience with Putin was “running out fast,” warning that the U.S. would “have to come down very, very strong” with sanctions targeting banks, oil, and tariffs. However, he has yet to specify a timeline for such measures, continuing a pattern of setting deadlines for Putin that have repeatedly passed without action.
Ukrainian President Zelensky has criticized Trump’s approach, telling ABC News that the Alaska summit gave Putin “what he wanted” by providing the Russian leader with international legitimacy without requiring meaningful concessions in return.
