WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s flip-flopping response to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine flipped yet again Wednesday, with an announcement of new economic sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies.
“Today is a very big day in terms of what we’re doing,” Trump told reporters at the start of an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. “Look, these are tremendous sanctions. These are very big. They are against their two big oil companies.”
Wednesday’s developments come just five days after Trump called for an end to the war in Ukraine, with the existing battle lines becoming the new territorial lines — which would effectively reward Putin for starting a brutal war of aggression. And that statement came just two weeks after Trump proposed letting Ukraine use U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles against Russia. He nixed that idea last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would accept a ceasefire along current battle lines if they are the starting point for negotiating a permanent peace agreement. Putin has insisted that Russia should get territory it has been unable to seize despite 44 months of trying.
Immediately following a phone call with Putin on Oct. 16, Trump said the two would meet in Budapest, Hungary, in about two weeks, but on Wednesday, he said he had canceled that plan.
