Now that’s a cosmetic turnaround. In a message posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday, March 7, Donald Trump threatened Russia with large-scale additional banking sanctions and new tariffs “until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached” in Ukraine. This statement came just as Moscow launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. It also came at the end of a week in which the White House stepped up the pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky, following the aborted signing of the Ukrainian minerals deal on February 28.

Trump has continued to assert his confidence in Russia’s good faith, making the Ukrainian leader the main obstacle to a rapid ceasefire. He questioned Zelensky’s democratic legitimacy and decided to halt deliveries of arms and munitions, as well as the sharing of American intelligence. Questioned in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump was already appearing to contradict his own reversal. “I actually think he is doing what anybody else would do,” he said, referring to Vladimir Putin and the intense Russian bombing.

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