
Trump misses his own deadline to end Ukraine war
CNN
President Donald Trump has missed his deadline for ending the war in Ukraine.
President Donald Trump has missed his deadline for ending the war in Ukraine. Of course, no one truly believed Trump would be able end the grinding, three-year conflict in 24 hours, as he implausibly promised repeatedly as a candidate. Even his new special envoy to Ukraine has asked for 100 days to find a solution. Yet the missed deadline — and the scant mention of the conflict during Monday’s inauguration celebrations — nonetheless underscore how difficult the challenge of ending the fighting in Ukraine will be for the new president, who so far has made no public attempts at brokering peace. Amid the laundry list of priorities Trump recited during his inaugural address, Ukraine did not warrant a mention. While Trump declared himself a “peacemaker,” he offered no specific pledges of continued American assistance to Kyiv. For now, it appears Trump’s first order of business will be a talk with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who he accused of “destroying Russia” during remarks in the Oval Office on Monday. “He can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well,” Trump told reporters amid a lengthy signing ceremony, a rare moment of criticism about the Russian president. “Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country.”