U.S. President Donald Trump has become frustrated by the lack of progress in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and a new phase of this conflict is now beginning, in which he will evidently increase pressure on Putin.
John Lough, a geopolitical expert and associate fellow at Chatham House, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.
“I think we’re entering this new phase of the war, and we found that we have an American president who is frustrated by his lack of progress on this question because he thought it’d be much easier, much quicker,” the expert said.
According to him, Trump, he is convinced he can resolve conflicts. His achievement in Israel is not to be underestimated, as it is a very serious result for him, Lough said. This will give the U.S. president confidence that he can make something happen in this war – and from his perspective, hopefully bring it to an end.
Lough was in Washington last week, and from what he gathered there, the Trump administration is indeed looking for ways to increase pressure on the Russian side.
“We may have underestimated Trump,” the expert said, recalling that the Americans were providing targeting assistance to Ukraine for attacks on the oil infrastructure, the refineries, and the imports.
The British analyst believes that the whole issue concerning Tomahawk missiles is a deliberate Trump ploy to get the Russians’ attention, appear unpredictable, and see if that has an effect. After all, the meeting with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage did not work: the American leader did everything to flatter Putin – rolling out the red carpet and pulling him out of international isolation – but the result was zero, Lough said.
“He gave Putin a golden opportunity in the spring after he came to office to settle his war on terms that for Putin were quite advantageous, but they clearly were not considered to be good enough or not sufficiently reliable,” he said.
When asked if the Tomahawks issue was just rhetoric intended to threaten the Kremlin, Lough replied, “Anything is possible. I wouldn’t underestimate him because he does unexpected things. He bombed Iran.”
At the same time, Lough did not rule out the possibility of increased pressure on Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, the expert noted that the pressure on Ukraine so far had not been sufficient to end the war.
As reported, Zelensky is scheduled to meet with Trump in Washington this Friday.