Ukraine war latest: Everyone is emotional says Kremlin, after Trump calls Putin ‘absolutely crazy’

Has Trump’s mediation empowered Moscow?published at 15:35 British Summer Time

15:35 BST

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

Image source, EPA

This is a return to form from Trump in the wake of deadly Russian missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.

But his threat of beefed-up sanctions doesn’t seem to worry Moscow – Trump has so far delivered on none of them.

In their place, a pattern continues.

Ukraine has been subjected to Washington’s punishments for not falling into line, while Trump has made no public calls for concessions from Putin as part of his ceasefire plan.

The White House rejects claims of weakness, pointing out that all the Biden-era sanctions remain in place against Moscow.

But the fact remains that Trump’s mediation appears to have made Moscow more, not less, empowered since making contact back in February.

Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have negotiated down Trump’s demands and upped their own.

In addition to the long list of demands to stop the war, including a ban on Nato membership, they have added that Ukraine cede parts of its own country not even occupied by Russia and that the US formally recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Moscow, calls these a “poison pill” introduced by the Kremlin, “creating conditions for a ceasefire Kyiv could never accept to shift the blame for it failing onto Ukraine, in Trump’s eyes”.