According to the loud statements of the US President Donald Trump There is still more rhetoric than real action regarding Ukraine: there are no specifics regarding the volume and timing of arms supplies, sanctions against the Russian Federation are being postponed, and the"ultimatum" to Russian ruler Vladimir Putin looks like another attempt to reach a personal, rather than strategic, agreement. Journalist Christian Keril writes about this in the columns Foreign Policy .

He noted that on July 14, at his press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, where a new arms plan for Ukraine was announced, Trump presented the change in position towards the Russians not so much as a strategic decision, but as an outrage.

"The US president noticeably lacks a deeper strategic understanding of why the war started, why it continues, and how it will end. Like his diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump sees everything through his highly personalized deal-making lens: Putin now needs to be brought to order because he, Trump's former friend, betrayed him," the article says.

Former US Army Commander in Europe Ben Hodges agreed, noting that Trump lacks strategic vision for the outcome of Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Why doesn't the president say, 'The ultimate goal is for Russia to live within its own borders, like any other sovereign nation, and for it to stop attacking its neighbors,'" Hodges asks.

Instead, he said, Trump is making"a series of half-baked statements and vague assertions."

There is much that is unclear about Ukraine's support

Evaluating Trump's new policy towards Ukraine, Caryl emphasized that if it is implemented, it may be better than a complete cessation of arms supplies to Ukraine, but it is still less than what was planned under the administration of previous President Joe Biden.

"Weapons that were supposed to be provided to Ukrainians for free, using the president's authority to reduce troops, will instead be sold to Europeans, who will then transfer them to Kyiv. And details about the specific types and quantities of weapons that will be delivered are still unclear," he writes.

The author of the article emphasizes that it is unclear how many Patriot interceptor missiles Kyiv will receive, what else the Europeans are willing to buy for Ukraine, and how much of this Trump is willing to provide.

According to Hodges, Trump is"essentially inventing policy on the fly," when he should be "relying on the policy-making apparatus at the National Security Council and the Department of Defense to help formulate goals, coordinate messages, and generally provide some level of reliability in the U.S. decision-making process."

Hodges explained that there is chaos at the top of the Pentagon and that the traditional structure for developing national security policy in the White House has largely been dismantled. He said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is"taking on the job of acting national security adviser," and that the job "takes up 25 hours a day," so it's no wonder Trump may be "making things up on the fly."

Putin received a reprieve from any serious economic pressure from the US

The journalist also finds Trump's statement about the possible introduction of "very serious tariffs" against Russia to be alarming if it refuses to end the war within 50 days.

"Translation: Putin gets another reprieve from any serious economic pressure from the US. It's also an extremely generous timeframe for a country that has repeatedly evaded ceasefire agreements and serious negotiations," Caryl noted.

Moreover, the journalist predicts that Putin will pretend to return to the negotiating table, and Trump will extend this deadline.

The fact that there have been no significant changes in Trump's policy regarding the war in Ukraine, according to the author of the article, is also evidenced by the reaction of Russian officials to his statements.

"If Trump's announcement of the resumption of arms supplies to Kyiv was intended to seriously pressure Moscow, one would expect the Russians to react with horror and fear. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov merely shrugged:"Fifty days. It used to be 24 hours; it used to be 100 days — we've been through it all." Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: "Russia doesn't care," the article says.

Trump's new policy towards Ukraine and Russia

As UNIAN previously reported, on July 14, Trump announced a possible imposition of tariffs against Russia and promised weapons to Ukraine. He gave Putin an ultimatum, threatening to impose secondary tariffs on Russia and its partners if there was no agreement on a peace settlement in Ukraine within 50 days. Trump also said that Putin had disappointed him by not agreeing to a ceasefire.

Also Trump promised to immediately send Ukraine wants Patriot interceptor missiles, the US suspended the supply of these weapons to Ukraine in early July. However, recent phone conversations with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky forced Trump to change his decision.