Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov fumes that U.S.–Russian relations are ‘balancing on the brink of a breakup.’
Over in that other Washington publication I write for, I laid out a few reasons to think that President Trump doesn’t plan to abandon Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s aggression. One big reason is the hawkish past comments from Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lietenant General Keith Kellogg, and another is the fact that Kellogg’s daughter, Meaghan Mobbs, runs the R. T. Weatherman Foundation, which has been running relief operations in Ukraine since the start of the war.
At the beginning of the month, Mobbs tweeted: “One of the new great falsehoods being pushed by bad actors is there is nothing worth fighting and dying for. Peace at all costs isn’t peace, it’s surrender disguised as virtue. True peace requires strength, sacrifice, and the willingness to defend what is right — even when it costs.”
As I put it in the piece, “Kellogg is his own man and Mobbs her own woman. There’s no guarantee that the father always agrees with the daughter, and vice versa,” but “this does not sound like a family interested in giving Putin a great deal.”
(Noah has a less optimistic view of Kellogg; as always, read us both to get a balanced perspective.)
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Trump is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
But during the campaign, I heard a lot of talk that Trump would immediately sell out Ukraine and let Putin do whatever he wants. (This ignored the fact that there were good reasons to doubt the hawkishness of Kamala Harris. Moreover, as I noted, “there are intermittent reasons to think Trump may not be as dovish on Ukraine as, say, JD Vance would prefer, i.e., as president, Trump sent Javelin missiles that the Obama administration had refused to send, and Trump ultimately acquiesced to the foreign aid package that passed in spring, sending nearly $61 billion in aid for Ukraine.”)
We’re only a few weeks into this administration, so, again, we don’t know how the story of the Russian invasion ends and what role the Trump administration will play in its conclusion. But already we’ve seen Trump jumping onto Truth Social and fuming that Putin’s not taking what Trump considers to be a good offer.
I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!
And now, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is characterizing U.S.–Russian relations as “balancing on the brink of a breakup.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a media conference Monday that relations with Washington “are balancing on the brink of a breakup” and reiterated that the war in Ukraine would last until Kyiv drops its ambitions to join NATO and withdraws from the four regions occupied by Russian forces.
In remarks suggesting Moscow is maintaining its tough negotiating stance, Ryabkov said that “we simply imperatively need to get … the new U.S. administration to understand and acknowledge that without resolving the problems that are the root causes of the crisis in Ukraine, it will not be possible to reach an agreement.”
Ryabkov’s comments are posturing and saber-rattling, no doubt, but also an indicator that Trump has, so far, not put a deal on the table that interests Putin and the Kremlin.