Following President Donald Trump calling for Russia to halt it’s bombardment of Ukraine on Sunday, Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm said that Trump is increasingly looking to bury his hopes of a Ukraine peace plan. This comes after numerous failed attempts at ending the warm, and over a month of the White House threatening to abandon the peace process if no progress is made.
On Tuesday Trump issued a statement telling Russian President Vladimir Putin to be thankful for the actions of the new administration in Washington.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Trump said Tuesday. “He’s playing with fire!”
Trump’s frustration may cause him to give up on resolving the conflict.
“Russia said no cease-fire and Trump is increasingly washing his hands of it,” Bremmer said Monday. “Support for Ukraine continues to recede in importance for the Americans … What comes next is more fighting — expanded Russian attacks across Ukraine, fewer restraints on Ukraine targeting inside Russia.”
On May 4 President Trump said that he is prepared to exit the peace negotiations if progress fails to be made.
“I do believe we’re closer with one party. And maybe not as close with the other, but we’ll have to see,” Trump said. “Five thousand soldiers a week on average, are dying. They’re not American soldiers. But I want to solve the problem.”
That statement echoed a similar stance the President took the month prior.
“Donald Trump has said the U.S. will ‘take a pass’ on brokering further Russia-Ukraine talks if Moscow or Kyiv ‘make it very difficult’ to reach a peace deal,” the BBC said April 18. “The U.S. president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he was not expecting a truce to happen in ‘a specific number of days’ but he wanted it done ‘quickly’. His comments came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the U.S. would abandon talks unless there were clear signs of progress within days.”
Vice President JD Vance reiterated this warning soon after.
“It’s time for them to either say yes or for the U.S. to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters in India on April 23. “We’ve engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy, of on the ground work.”
Vance explained that Washington offered Moscow and Kiev a “very explicit proposal” regarding a war resolution agreement.
“It’s now time, I think, to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps, which is, at a broad level, the party saying we’re going to stop the killing, we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today,” Vance said April 23. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”
Not long after Vance went into more depth with the situation and explained why abandoning the push for peace may have to happen.
“It’s going to be up to them [Russia and Ukraine] to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict,” Vance told Fox News on May 1. “It’s not going anywhere Bret, it’s not going to end anytime soon, and I think for the Ukrainians, yes of course they’re angry that they were invaded, but are we going to continue to lose thousands and thousands of soldiers over a few miles of territory this or that way. I hope both of them come to their senses.”
The Vice President explained how the final steps to peace can only be taken by Moscow and Kiev.
“Look, I am optimistic, but it is ultimately, it’s hard to say confident, because the Russians and Ukrainians, they’re the ones who have to take the finals step. We got them talking, we got them offering peace proposals, we got the minerals deal done, I think we’re in a place where they got to say ‘we’re done with the fighting, we’re done with losing thousands and thousands of young people, we’re done with this.’ But only Russia and Ukraine can make that decision, that’s not something even President Trump could do for them,” Vance said May 1.
The administration has also made it clear Washington will cut its losses as well.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said April 18, stating that Washington has “other priorities to focus on”.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce announced May 1 that the U.S. will no longer serve as a mediator in peace negotiations between the two countries.
“We will not be the mediators,” Bruce told reporters when asked about Washington’s future role. “We certainly are still committed to it and we’ll help and do what we can, but we are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.”