by Anatol Lieven at Responsible Statecraft
While the press was focused on ‘bullying’ it would seem the president is actually returning to strategic restraint and charting a more realistic course
Claims that President Trump bullied President Zelensky and urged him to withdraw from the whole of the Donbas at their latest meeting in Washington will doubtless cause the usual furore in the Western media and commentariat, but they cannot be substantiated and are a distraction from the really important issue concerning U.S. and NATO strategy, which is whether the alliance should continue support to Ukraine at existing levels or seek radically to escalate.
Here, President Trump made the right decision by pulling back from his previous suggestion that the U.S. might provide Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine — presumably as a result of his recent telephone discussion with President Putin.
On the one hand the very limited number of land-based Tomahawks that the U.S. could provide would not seriously change the balance of forces between Ukraine and Russia — as Putin doubtless warned Trump. But in political terms the missiles would be seen in Russia as a huge escalation. They would be able to strike Moscow and far deeper into Russia, and they would need the direct assistance of the U.S. military both to set them up and to guide them onto their targets.
President Trump will hopefully exercise the same prudence and…
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