Arms for Ukraine and an ultimatum for Russia

In a surprise turnaround on the Ukraine war, President Trump said this week that the U.S. would continue supplying weapons to Ukraine and would inflict economic pain on Russia if it failed to make a peace deal. After an Oval Office meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Trump said NATO allies had agreed to buy "a full complement" of U.S. weapons—including Patriot missile batteries—to give to Ukraine, portraying the deal as lucrative for the U.S. And he said that if Russia did not agree to a cease-fire within 50 days, he would apply tariffs of 100% on countries, like China and India, that import Russian oil and other goods. Trump has increasingly expressed frustration with the duplicity of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "My conversations with him are always very pleasant," he said, "and then the missiles go off that night." On a recent call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump reportedly floated the idea of Ukraine striking Moscow and St. Petersburg, although this week he walked that back and said Zelensky should not do so.

Republican lawmakers who had previously opposed aid to Ukraine fell in line after the president's announcement. "I call him the peacemaker in chief," said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.). "He has my 100% absolute, unequivocal support." Meanwhile, despite the ultimatum, Russia continued pounding Ukraine this week, launching hundreds of drone and missile strikes on six Ukrainian regions and targeting civilian buildings. Zelensky's hometown, Kryvyi Rih, suffered its biggest attack since the war began.

What the columnists said

What a change from a few months ago, said Andreas Kluth in Bloomberg. In February, Trump bullied Zelensky in the Oval Office and "blamed the victim, Kyiv," for starting the war. Now Trump seems to have had a change of heart, and if so, he should do more than just send weapons. For starters, he could revive the bipartisan bill now languishing in Congress that "would let the U.S. seize Russia's overseas central bank assets and give them to Ukraine." That would hit Putin where it hurts.

It's good that Trump has finally realized that Putin has been playing him, said Jonathan Sweet and Mark Toth in The Hill, but why did he give Russia so long to come to the table? He's effectively "giving Putin a 50-day license to continue targeting Ukrainian civilians: men, women, and children alike." Ukraine will now face seven more weeks of "relentless and unabated aerial bombardments" on its cities. And Russia will use that time to "steal more Ukrainian territory," particularly the areas that contain rare-earth minerals.

Still, Trump is now putting effective pressure on Putin, said The Washington Post in an editorial. He hopes to force substantive negotiations "by brandishing an economic weapon—secondary sanctions—the United States has hesitated to use." It's a "powerful tool." Unfortunately, given Trump's penchant for threatening and then backing down, the Russians may doubt that the U.S. "will follow through" and actually impose the sanctions. This time, Trump must prove to Putin that "he means what he says."