Trump’s Dressing Down of Zelensky Performs Into Putin’s Conflict Goals

President Trump says he needs a fast cease-fire in Ukraine. However President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seems to be in no rush, and the blowup on Friday between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president might give Russia’s chief the sort of ammunition he must delay the battle.

With the American alliance with Ukraine struggling a dramatic, public rupture, Mr. Putin now appears much more more likely to maintain out for a deal on his phrases — and he might even be tempted to broaden his push on the battlefield.

The extraordinary scene in Washington — wherein Mr. Trump lambasted President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — was broadcast as the highest story on state tv in Russia on Saturday morning. It performed into three years of Kremlin propaganda casting Mr. Zelensky as a foolhardy ruler who would ultimately exhaust the persistence of his Western backers.

For the Kremlin, maybe a very powerful message got here in later remarks by Mr. Trump, who instructed that if Ukraine didn’t conform to a “cease-fire now,” the war-torn nation must “battle it out” with out American assist.

That would arrange an end result that Mr. Putin has lengthy sought, at the price of tens of hundreds of Russian lives: a dominant place over Ukraine and wide-ranging concessions from the West.

In truth, Mr. Trump’s professed makes an attempt to finish the battle rapidly might intensify and delay it, consultants warned. If the US is de facto able to abandon Ukraine, Mr. Putin might attempt to seize extra Ukrainian territory and find yourself with extra leverage if and when peace talks finally happen.