US President-elect Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. However, this has not been done, and fighting has continued even after his inauguration. About this writes The New York Times.
During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could end the war quickly. In June, at a rally, he said he would do so immediately after winning the election. During a televised debate with Kamala Harris in September, he reiterated that he would end the war before becoming president.
This was not a random statement. Trump actively promoted this idea, stating that he would be able to end the war before taking office. However, the promise did not come true. After the election, Trump did not take any serious steps to resolve the conflict, and hostilities continued even after his inauguration.
As Senator Richard Blumenthal noted, the problem is that Trump does not understand that a peace agreement can only be reached if the Ukrainians have a strong negotiating position, and he is actually undermining their position, which is one of the reasons why the war was not ended before his inauguration.
Trump is used to exaggeration, and his promise to quickly end the war in Ukraine was part of his image as a man who could solve any problem. But Trump's promises are often broken, and even grandiose statements become empty words. He has failed to fulfill his promise to build a wall on the Mexican border, to eliminate the federal budget deficit, to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine, and to repeal Obamacare.
However, during his second term, Trump helped halt the fighting in Gaza by sending an envoy to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Although the deal was brokered by the Biden administration, Trump's pressure played a major role in its implementation.
The war in Ukraine is much more difficult for Trump, as he will have to start from scratch. Unlike the situation in Gaza, where a plan already existed, there is no ready-made peace plan in Ukraine. Just this month, the president’s new envoy for the war in Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, canceled a trip to Kyiv and other European capitals to assess the situation after his inauguration. He expressed hope that the conflict could be resolved in 100 days, 100 times longer than Trump had promised.
Catherine Stoner, a senior fellow at Stanford University, said Trump's promise was absurd. She noted that only Russian President Vladimir Putin could end the war in 24 hours, but he could have done so before the conflict even began. Any negotiations, she said, would take longer, regardless of when Trump takes action.
Michael Kimmage, author of the book "Collisions" about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, emphasized that Trump's promises were always "very loose" and perhaps more about boosting his image than a real plan.
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