Donald Trump has missed his own deadline for ending the war in Ukraine – with a new goal of 100 days to stop Vladimir Putin‘s aggression also seeming out of reach, experts have said.
Failing to get Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table within 24 hours means the president has backtracked on a promise – albeit an implausible one – that he repeatedly made while on the campaign trail.
‘No one with a decent grasp of this matter could believe that a conflict with such complex and deep roots could be resolved that easily,’ Vuk Vuksanovic, a political scientist at the London School of Economics (LSE), told Newsweek.
‘It remains more likely that this is a clash of interests and wills that will be resolved on the battlefield and not at the negotiating table,’ the foreign policy expert added.
Despite his repeated mentions of the war in the run-up to his inauguration, the president made no mention of it in his first speech, other than to declare himself a ‘peacemaker’.
In his first few days in office he has laid the blame for the grinding three-year war both with Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, and continued to boldly claim that he will secure a deal quickly, while giving fairly scant details as to how.
With the 24-hour deadline now expired and the war showing no sign of letting up anytime soon, Trump is said to have set his Ukraine envoy, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, the task of ending it within 100 days.
‘He can’t. The Russians are in the driver’s seat. The Russians, for good strategic reasons from their perspective, are driving a hard bargain,’ University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer said, adding: ‘It’s almost impossible for me to see President Trump accepting the terms that the Russians demand.’
Trump said on Tuesday that while he believes Zelensky wants to make a deal, ‘I don’t know if Putin does’
Ukrainian soldiers fire D-30 artillery in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, 8 December 2024
Trump has threatened heavy sanctions and tariffs on Russia unless Putin settles ‘almost immediately’
Trump is now focusing on his first phone call with Moscow, reports suggest, and when asked how long the war would last he said: ‘I have to speak to President Putin. We’re going to have to find out.’
Despite warnings that Trump may be ‘over-eager’ to end the war and could wish to do so at any price to meet his targets, there has been some optimism from voices in Kyiv and among its allies.
Referring to his country’s fate in light of a Trump presidency, former Ukrainian minister Tymofiy Mylovanov said: ‘It might not be good — but it will be much better than under Biden.
‘Biden managed the war as a crisis — he thought if he holds out long enough, the storm will pass. But it’s not passing.
‘Trump takes the perspective that we have to stop the storm. He’s not concerned about how it will be stopped.’
The Republican has continued making firm statements as he tries to project strength ahead of potential talks with Putin, who he shared relatively good relations with during his first term in office.
He has threatened heavy sanctions and tariffs on Russia unless Putin settles ‘almost immediately’, a move which would likely have little impact due to the limited US imports from Russia and the fact large-scale sanctions are already in place.
Speaking in the first interview of his presidency, Trump said of Moscow: ‘If they don’t settle this war soon, I mean almost immediately, I am going to put massive tariffs on Russia… I don’t want to do that, I love the Russian people, but we’ve got to get this war ended.’
He added that there was also a strong appetite in Kyiv to end the bloodshed – but indicated that this could be at a steep cost and that he perhaps had limited patience with Zelensky’s position.
‘I will say he wants to settle now,’ Trump said. ‘He’s had enough.’
Trump said Zelensky is ‘no angel,’ and even claimed that he ‘shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen’
A building lies in ruins after being hit by a Russian attack, on January 23, 2025 in Kostyantynivka, Ukraine
In a somewhat inflammatory statement about the Ukrainian leader, he said Zelensky is ‘no angel,’ and even claimed that he ‘shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen.’
‘First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity, okay, much bigger. When he was, you know, talking so brave… Zelensky was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful,’ Trump said.
‘He shouldn’t have done that, because we could have made a deal, and it would have been a deal that would have been… it would have been a nothing deal. I could have made that deal so easily,’ Trump said. ‘But Zelensky decided that ‘”I want to fight”.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump also said of the February 2022 invasion that Putin ‘shouldn’t have done it.’
‘He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop. You know, they’ve lost about 850,000 Russian soldiers and 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers,’ he said – figures that are almost certainly overblown, with war monitors putting the death toll closer to 150,000 on the Russian side and 62,000 for the Ukrainians.
With both sides counting their dead and struggling to replenish their frontline forces, an end to the war is an appealing prospect.
But both Kyiv and Moscow insist on it being favourable to them, and have demanded concessions from the other side.
‘We must find all possible ways to end the hot phase of the war. This is the number one issue,’ Zelensky said this week. ‘There can be many talks, but the main goal is to stop the active phase. This is the first guarantee of security.’
He added however that ‘Putin cannot be treated as legitimate in this situation. He has violated everything. He must understand his transgression.’
Trump discussed illegal migration during his interview with Fox News in the Oval Office
He said that if the Russian dictator were to be ‘approached as an equal’ in the talks ‘that would be a loss for Ukraine.’
Trump said on Tuesday that while he believes Zelensky wants to make a deal, ‘I don’t know if Putin does.’
He threatened that by refusing to do so ‘he’s destroying Russia’, with the country’s economy failing and inflation spiralling.
‘I think Russia is going to be in big trouble,’ he added, saying that Putin ‘can’t be thrilled that he’s not doing so well.’
‘I mean, he works hard, but most people thought the war would be over in about a week, and now it’s been three years, right?’
Putin has indicated that he is ready to engage with Trump but continues to insist on an outcome favouring Russia.
‘We are open to dialogue with the new US administration on the Ukrainian conflict. The most important thing here is to eliminate the root causes of the crisis,’ said the Russian ruler. An initial phone call is expected by Moscow to take place soon.
Trump said Zelensky was ready for a deal to halt the debilitating conflict, and the 78-year-old US leader said he planned to meet Putin with whom he had a ‘great relationship’ during his first term.
‘We’re going to try to do it as quickly as possible. You know, the war between Russia and Ukraine should never have started.’
On Monday evening, Trump joked about his campaign promise to end the conflict in 24 hours, pointing out that he had not been President that long after being sworn in around midday on Monday.
‘That’s only half a day. I have the other half of the day. We’ll see,’ he said.
A Russian soldier fires a self-propelled gun “Malka” toward Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who has long been critical of Trump, responded with scepticism, warning that Russia’s war against Ukraine will continue for the long-haul and that Europe should be prepared.
‘Let us not delude ourselves, this conflict will not end tomorrow or the day after,’ ‘ Macron said in his New Year’s address to the French armed forces.
He called on Europe to ‘wake up’ and spend more on defense as Trump returns to power, after the President warned that Washington could stop defending its alliance allies if they do not meet defence spending targets.
Newly-appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that ending the war was a priority for the president, but would only be possible if both sides make significant concessions.
‘Anytime you bring an end to a conflict between two sides, neither of whom can achieve their maximum goals, each side is going to have to give up something,’ he said, adding that ultimately the decision would be down to the Ukrainians and Russians.