{"id":127845,"date":"2025-02-25T15:48:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T15:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/whiplash-trump-orders-u-turn-after-3-years-of-u-s-support-for-ukraine-in-war-with-russia-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T15:48:51","slug":"whiplash-trump-orders-u-turn-after-3-years-of-u-s-support-for-ukraine-in-war-with-russia-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/whiplash-trump-orders-u-turn-after-3-years-of-u-s-support-for-ukraine-in-war-with-russia-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Whiplash: Trump orders U-turn after 3 years of U.S. support for Ukraine in war with Russia – USA TODAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 Talk about a U-turn.\u00a0
When Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia invaded Ukraine<\/a> three years ago, Joe Biden rallied the world<\/a>.\u00a0 The U.S. and its partners isolated Russia and poured tens of billions of dollars in arms, cash and loans into Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s battered country \u2013 even as Putin refused to yield.\u00a0
\u201cAmerica stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom. This is who we are,\u201d Biden said from the White House.\u00a0
That was then.\u00a0
Now, on the anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Biden administration\u2019s position of \u201cnothing about Ukraine, without Ukraine\u201d has been tossed aside by President Donald Trump<\/a> and his advisers. Trump has lashed out<\/a> at Ukraine, blaming its leaders for Putin\u2019s invasion<\/a> and cutting Kyiv out of early negotiations with Russia \u2013 to the shock of America’s allies.\u00a0
More:<\/strong>Trump dodges on whether Putin is a dictator after calling Zelenskyy one<\/a>
His taunting of Zelenskyy, who he called \u201cdictator,\u201d was rebuked by European leaders and peeved Ukraine-supporting lawmakers<\/a> in the U.S.
“I’m just here to try and get peace,” Trump said this month. “I don’t care so much about anything other than I want to stop having millions of people killed.”
More:<\/strong>Mike Pence criticizes President Trump for saying Ukraine started war with Russia<\/a>
The president\u2019s team says he deserves credit for shifting the conversation to how the war ends after more than a year of grim stalemate on the battlefront. But his repetition of Russian talking points<\/a> about who\u2019s to blame for the war has put the the White House in an uncomfortable position.
Trump national security adviser Michael Waltz would not say whether Trump believes Putin or Zelenskyy is more responsible for the Russian invasion at a White House briefing Thursday. Waltz pointedly underscored Trump’s frustration with the Ukrainian president, who said Trump was living in a “disinformation” bubble informed by the aggressor\u2019s narrative.
“There has been ongoing fighting on both sides. It is World War I-style trench warfare,” Waltz said. “Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv, frankly, and \u2013 and insults to President Trump \u2013 were unacceptable,” he added.
In a floor speech later that day, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the ranking member on the Foreign Relations committee, said Ukraine still has bipartisan support.
More:<\/strong>Zelenskyy says he would step down if Ukraine can join NATO, blasts Trump mineral pitch<\/a>
“Vladimir Putin is responsible for this. He’s responsible for the bodies in Bucha and for thousands across Ukraine,\u201d Shaheen said, recalling the 2022 massacre of hundreds of Ukrainian townspeople by Russia\u2019s 234th Guards Air Assault Regiment. \u201cAnd he’s got to be held accountable. We cannot let him get away with this.”
The full civilian toll isn\u2019t known. Ukraine does not release casualty figures and lacks access to Russian-occupied areas of the country \u2013 about 20% of its territory.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 40,838 civilians had been killed or wounded in Ukraine as of December 2024, including 2,500 children<\/a>. Kyiv estimates 20,000 Ukrainian kids have been forcibly taken to Russia \u2013 the International Criminal Court has charged Putin with approving their abductions<\/a> \u2013 with only a fraction returned<\/a>.
In addition to the Black Sea region of Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, Moscow controls large swathes of Ukraine.\u00a0
In a surprise move last year, Ukraine seized territory in the western region of Kursk. Russia said last week it\u2019s retaken much of that territory<\/a> and now controls 75% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of eastern Ukraine, in addition to almost all of the Luhansk region.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> alarmed U.S. allies<\/a> earlier this month when he said in a speech that \u201creturning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective<\/a>\u201d and that eventual NATO membership for Ukraine \u2013 a pillar of Kyiv\u2019s security strategy \u2013 is not “a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.”
Trump said later Hegseth was “probably” right about NATO membership. “I’m backing Ukraine,” the president told reporters<\/a>. “I’m approving, but I do want security for our money.”
The comments came after a call with Putin, in which Trump said they discussed the \u201cgreat benefit that we will someday have<\/a> in working together\u201d and raised an in-person meeting in Saudi Arabia. The call was the first known conversation between a U.S. president and Putin since the war began. His team then traveled to Riyadh to meet with Russian officials, including foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who is under U.S. sanctions<\/a>.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> touted \u201cthe incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians, geopolitically on issues of common interest and, frankly, economically.\u201d
The talks incensed Ukraine. Zelenskyy postponed a trip of his own to Saudi Arabia that was due to follow.
More:<\/strong>Zelenskyy: Trump is trapped in Russian ‘disinformation’ bubble<\/a>
“We want no one to decide anything behind our backs,” he said. “No decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine.”
Trump responded tersely. \u201cYou\u2019ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. Three years. You should have never started it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could have made a deal.\u201d
Trump\u2019s complicated history with Zelenskyy dates back to an infamous 2019 phone call<\/a> the leaders shared two months after the former comedian was sworn in as Ukraine\u2019s president.
From the White House, Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate Biden, then Trump’s top rival for the presidency, his son Hunter \u2013 who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company \u2013 and a discredited conspiracy theory involving<\/a> a hack on the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election that U.S. prosecutors say was done by Russian agents.
More:<\/strong>Trump fires back at Zelenskyy, calls him a ‘dictator without elections’<\/a>
The phone call led to Trump\u2019s first impeachment trial. He was accused by House Democrats of withholding military aid to Ukraine and dangling a White House visit in front of Zelenskyy in a quid pro quo<\/a>, a charge he denied.
Trump eventually provided Ukraine with weapons. He was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in February 2020. Zelenskyy did not visit the White House until after Biden took office.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, leading to the protracted war.
Trump has repeatedly derided Zelenskyy in the years since, most recently calling him a “dictator”<\/a> and demanding elections in Ukraine despite the ongoing invasion. Ukraine’s constitution<\/a> bars elections while the country is under martial law<\/a>.
Tensions flared last fall ahead of the U.S. election when Zelenskyy visited an ammunition plant in Pennsylvania, a major U.S. battleground state, and said Trump, who\u2019d boasted he could end the war in a single day<\/a>, didn’t know how to conclude the war.
Zelenskyy sought to bring the temperature down at a New York meeting immediately afterward. The leaders spoke by phone after the election and met in Paris in December alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. (Macron is due in Washington on Monday where, he said on social media<\/a>, he will warn Trump against appearing weak to Putin.)
A tit-for-tat broke out anew after Trump hit out at Zelenskyy for refusing a deal to provide the U.S. with access to its mineral resources in exchange for aid. The Ukrainian leader returned fire, saying Trump was buying into disinformation.\u00a0Trump demanded $500 billion in Ukraine’s minerals as repayment for U.S. assistance, but Zelenskyy retorted that American aid hasn’t come close to that enormous figure.
Former U.S. officials say the spat has hurt both leaders.
“Trump needs Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy needs Trump,\u201d Charles Kupchan<\/a>, a former senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council said recently on a call with reporters.\u00a0
\u201cThis kind of mutual insult game only plays into the hands of Russia at a time when the Trump administration should be doing everything to increase Ukraine’s leverage, not undermine it,” he said.\u00a0
Kupchan, who supports direct talks with the Russians, added, “I appreciate what Trump is trying to do. In practice, it is a big hot mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2013 Talk about a U-turn.\u00a0When Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, Joe Biden rallied the world.\u00a0 The U.S. and its partners isolated Russia and poured tens of billions of dollars in arms, cash and loans into Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s battered country \u2013 even as Putin refused to yield.\u00a0\u201cAmerica stands up to bullies. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}