President Trump just prior to entering the Oval Office vowed to quickly achieve peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, which is currently in its fifth year. The MAGA base got energized by Trump's earlier repeat statements that he'd bring peace to major global flashpoints and hotspots, but instead of anti-interventionism he started a new war of choice in the Middle East, and is now tripling down on military support to Kiev.
While in Turkey for the annual NATO summit, President Trump commented on the issue of Ukrainian drone strikes deep into Russian territory on its oil refineries and defense manufacturing facilities, which has unleashed a fuel crisis in various parts of Russia and especially Crimea.
"It's an escalation but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end [of the war]," the US President told the NATO summit.
After heaping lavish praise on Ukraine forces for supposedly turning the tide of battle and momentum in Kiev's favor, Trump also said, "We have a lot of pressure on President Putin. I don’t think he likes what’s going on." He added: "But I talked to President Putin a lot. He wants to end the war."
The Wall Street Journal comments in the wake of Trump's remarks:
President Trump said he supported Ukraine striking targets deep inside Russian territory, calling it an escalation that could help end the war.
...In a marked contrast to past meetings between the two leaders, Trump opened his press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky by offering warm words and fresh promises of military cooperation with Ukraine, providing a major boon for Kyiv and its supporters in Europe. Trump praised Ukraine’s bravery, signaled he would consider granting Kyiv a license to produce U.S. Patriot missile interceptors and said he would consider travel to Kyiv at the right time in peace talks.
On this, Trump said Washington would give Ukraine "the right to make Patriots" - after Zelensky has for at least six months been relentless in requesting this, framing it as urgent and for the protection of cities and civilians.
"We’ll show them how to do it," Trump stated, describing the system as "very complex" - though he also said the Ukrainians would "figure out the complexity quickly."
Trump continued by saying that American defense firms are already building "four plants" and claimed that "all of our companies will be able to do this in two to three months."
However, there have notoriously been immense backlogs when it comes to Patriot production, and there's said to be great global demand among US allies, especially given depletions which have come as a result of the Iran war.
It's hard to know of this is just more bluster - and what will actually materialize as far as this promises - but Moscow will only see this as another US step up the escalation ladder. Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the Ukraine conflict is no longer just a "special military operation" but a real war, because Kiev is backed by Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Oslo, and Washington - complete with Western weapons, satellites, and infrastructure helping direct strikes.
"In these conditions, we must be clear-eyed: the Kiev regime is capable of anything," Peskov said in an interview.