'Which side of the war is he on?' Analyst details 'central question' in Trump’s Russia approach

28 February

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the 2017 G-20 Hamburg Summit, Wikimedia Commons

As President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet to discuss an economic agreement, a key question is whether Trump is on Ukraine or Russia’s side, according to CNN Political & National Security Analyst David Sanger.

“I think the central question that Zelenskyy has to go resolve as he walks into the Oval Office right now with the president is which side of this war is Donald Trump on?” he said on CNN Friday.

“The past few weeks, the president has suggested that his sympathies really lie with the Russians," he continued "You saw that in his refusal to say that it was Russian aggression that began the war. You saw it in the discussions that they had in Saudi Arabia, where there was talk about a broader economic relationship with Russia, which would mean undoing the sanctions that were imposed here.”

Trump recently called Zelenskyy a “dictator,” although he later backpedaled.

“Did I say that?" Trump said to a reporter. "I can’t believe I said that. Next question."

“So if you're President Zelenskyy you've got to think, 'Gee, my biggest ally is about to go over to the other side here,' and that's what he's trying to pull him back from," Sanger said.

“It's also what President [Emmanuel] Macron of France and Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer of Britain were trying to figure out and to prevent in their meetings in recent days,” he said. “And I'm not sure at the end of this whether we'll know the answer to that question. I think what we will know is that this deal has been signed… There's nothing very specific in it."

“It does enable President Trump to stand up and say, 'I've achieved what I need to achieve, and I can now back the Ukrainians.' But I'm not sure President Zelenskyy will actually trust that,” he added.

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