Peacemaker Trump encourages Putin to aggression against Ukraine

The author of the publication, Tony Blair, notes that on July 3, just after hanging up the phone after a phone conversation with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin launched the largest air attack on Kyiv since the beginning of the war.

Putin committed this crime because he is absolutely certain that Mr. Trump will not be able to exact any price. True, the American president may write an angry post on social media, but Putin is clearly convinced that nothing more will happen. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has given him every reason to believe that is the case.

The author of the publication cites the obvious context of the night attack on Kyiv: the other day the US stopped supplying Ukraine with Patriot interceptor missiles, thereby "effectively informing" Putin that America is ready to leave Kyiv defenseless against a Russian air attack.

By not imposing any new sanctions, Mr. Trump is allowing existing ones to lapse and sending another signal to Putin: do the worst you can.

The Kremlin is already fully convinced that the bipartisan bill on hellish sanctions against the Russian Federation, which has been in Congress since March, will never be passed.

Considering all of the above, the journalist came to the conclusion that the situation has only two possible explanations.

• The first option: Trump persuades Putin to stop the war by threatening to stop helping Ukraine, and then we have "the most imperfect and incompetent peace process in history."

• The second option: Trump believes that the only way to peace is to achieve the complete defeat of Ukraine and its conquest by Russia as soon as possible.

Any of these explanations would justify Putin's audacity, the journalist concluded.