Trump sides with Russia on Ukraine war anniversary

What happened

More than a dozen Western leaders traveled to Kyiv Monday to mark the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. The U.S. did not send a representative. In Washington, French President Emmanuel Macron met with President Donald Trump, seeking to steer him away from his embrace of Russia and back toward Ukraine and America's traditional European allies.

At the United Nations, the U.S. joined Russia, Iran, North Korea and 14 other Moscow allies to vote against a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. The nonbinding resolution passed with the backing of 93 countries.

Who said what

Monday's anniversary followed "a cascade of unwelcome developments for Kyiv," The Associated Press said. Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator," suggested Kyiv is to blame for the war and ended Russian President Vladimir Putin's "three-year diplomatic isolation" while starting peace talks with Moscow, sidelining Ukraine.

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Macron and Trump Monday "showed a friendly rapport based on years of good ties," but they disagreed on "some key issues" about the Ukraine war, Reuters said. Macron said Putin was the "aggressor" in the conflict and would not respect a "weak" peace agreement with no "deterrence," while Trump suggested Putin could be trusted to uphold a peace deal and declined to call him a dictator as well. "I don't use those words lightly," Trump told reporters. "The two leaders did agree, however, on the deployment of European peacekeeping forces once a peace deal is eventually reached," Reuters said. Trump said Putin, who has publicly rejected the idea, assured him privately he "has no problem with it."

"It's time to end this bloodletting and restore peace, and I think we're going to do it," Trump said. "My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration, and, frankly, the past."

What next?

The "blitz of European trips to Washington" to "influence the new administration" continues Thursday with the arrival of British Prime Minister Kier Starmer, The New York Times said. "Russia does not hold all the cards in this war," Starmer said Monday while pledging more than $5 billion in military aid for Kyiv and new sanctions on Russia. "We must increase the pressure even further."