Trump softens on Putin as Russia's military edge weakens, officials say [View all]
Russia’s battlefield strength in Ukraine has started to wane and it could run into serious shortages of manpower and weaponry by next year, even as President Donald Trump retreats from pressure on Moscow to end the war, according to senior U.S. and European officials and military experts.
In recent days, Trump appears to have abandoned the threat of harsh financial sanctions he repeated as recently as two weeks ago if Moscow doesn’t agree to a ceasefire with Kyiv. Instead, after a two-hour phone call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he touted potential new trade deals with Russia.
Rather than the U.S. leadership he promised, Trump has mused that he might just walk away and leave the negotiations to the Europeans — perhaps even the new pope — to sort out. His administration has not committed to additional military or financial aid to Ukraine.
But the timing for putting pressure on Moscow may be more advantageous now than at any point since the early days of the conflict, according to more than a dozen officials who discussed the current state of the war and the sensitive politics and diplomacy surrounding it, most on the condition of anonymity.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-softens-on-putin-as-russia-s-military-edge-weakens-officials-say/ar-AA1Fpzwy
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