Europe

Trump’s 50-day shift on Ukraine is a big deal — but probably not for Putin

Published

2 days ago

July 15, 2025

CNN
—

New developments Tuesday reinforced the idea that President Donald Trump has significantly shifted his view of the Ukraine war.

But his short time horizons and lack of specificity on what exactly he will do for Ukraine, which are hallmarks of his leadership, mean the most critical factor preventing an end to the conflict will remain unchanged. There is little reason to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin will change his own calculations on a war he sees as a historic imperative and that may be existential for him politically.

Still, some things have undeniably changed.

Worst-case scenarios for what the first six months of Trump’s second term could mean for Ukraine didn’t come to pass.

This assessment excludes the Ukrainian civilians killed in Russia’s recent deadly escalation of drones and missile strikes, including on apartment blocks.

But Trump hasn’t folded to his erstwhile friend Putin. He’s not left Europe in the lurch under the shadow of an increasingly expansionist Russia amid the continent’s worst land war since World War II. Trump seems more warmly disposed toward NATO than he has been for years.

Ukrainian flags and portraits of soldiers are seen at a memorial for fallen fighters in Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14.

Ukraine faces the possibility of losing territory to a Russian summer offensive and more horror that civilians must bear. But diplomatically, it’s in a more favorable position with the Trump administration than anyone could have dared hope when President Volodymyr Zelensky got an Oval Office dressing-down in February. That means its hopes of surviving as an independent, sovereign state have improved.

Trump’s hostility toward Kyiv and misgivings about pumping US aid into a World War I-style quagmire might mostly be motivated by his dismay that Putin snubbed his peace plans, which were slanted toward the Kremlin.

But he at least has now shed some misconceptions that by force of personality alone he can bend Putin to his will. And by promising Patriot missiles to Kyiv — which Trump said on Tuesday are “already being shipped” — and being open to a new Russia sanctions push in Congress, he’s added steel to American peacemaking.

Trying to coerce Putin to the table may not work either. But at least Trump isn’t giving Ukraine away.

Trump’s shift will allow all sides to recalibrate to new realities. Although, as CNN’s Matthew Chance pointed out, Trump’s 50-day deadline for Moscow to talk peace offers a seven-week window for the cynics in Moscow to lock in as many gains as possible by raining fire and death on Ukraine.

Still, Trump has given himself some time to decide where he wants to go on Ukraine. And NATO states can enhance their own utility to Trump following a successful alliance summit.

Zelensky can try to build more goodwill with Trump to shape his approach to any future peace deals — though his experience in the Oval Office is a warning not to try to push the president too far.

And while the caveats about Putin being willing to wage indefinite war still apply, there’s a small chance a few more weeks will persuade Putin to contemplate a US off-ramp to a deal likely to hand him territory he’s seized in the three-year war and that he could spin as a win for Russian pride and security as well as a rebuke to the West.

Trump appeared optimistic Tuesday as he defended the ultimatum’s timeline. “A lot of opinions change very rapidly — might not be 50 days, might be much sooner than 50 days,” the president said.

It would be unwise to assume Trump’s estrangement with Putin is permanent.

His anger seems mostly born of disappointment that Putin has not delivered him a win with a peace deal that might yield a Nobel Prize rather than any deep sentimental or geopolitical concern for the implications of abandoning Ukraine.

And, as usual, the president has tempered previous vehement criticism of the Russian leader. After slamming Putin’s “bullsh*t” last week, Trump on Monday told the BBC: “I’m not done with him.”

Trump is transactional, operates in short windows of time and constantly seeks to land minor wins he can highlight. So, if he turned around and said he was meeting Putin in a summit next month or got mad at a new perceived slight from Zelensky, no one would be surprised.

“My concern here is that Donald Trump has the ability to be swayed very quickly,” said Sabrina Singh, a former Pentagon deputy press secretary who is now a CNN global affairs commentator.

“I fear that it’s only a matter of time until there’s another call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin where Putin gives some sort of concessions and says we’ll give a temporary five-day ceasefire and then turns around and says well, ‘Ukraine violated this ceasefire so we’re going to continue on with our war,’” Singh said on CNN News Central.

Still, Trump’s change of position is significant.

By following through on his vow to send “top of the line weapons” to Ukraine quickly, he is taking a big step. Patriot anti-missile defense systems could save many civilian lives, but Trump is embracing a political risk in ditching campaign-trail skepticism toward Ukraine shared by many MAGA supporters.

A US Army commander discusses Patriot battery readiness with soldiers assigned to an Air Defense Artillery Regiment on February 19.

Trump has also shown more openness to sanctions. Trade between the US and Russia is minuscule at this point, so bilateral punishments won’t mean much. But if Trump does make good on a threat to impose secondary sanctions on nations that buy Russian products, especially energy exports, he could choke Moscow’s economy and war machine.

Still, would he really target India and China — two leading purchasers of Russian goods, in a move that could severely disrupt US relations with those giant powers and throw the global economy into turmoil? His erratic history of imposing and then suspending tariffs as part of his global trade war suggests not. Moscow may be banking on it.

It also matters what, if any, additional weapons Trump may send to Ukraine. Its most optimistic supporters were delighted on Tuesday when the Financial Times first reported that the president had asked Zelensky in a phone call about Kyiv’s capacity to target both Moscow and St. Petersburg. But Trump toned down the speculation on Tuesday, although aides told CNN that he has not ruled out shipping certain categories of offensive weapons to Ukraine that he’s so far been unwilling to provide.

“No, he shouldn’t target Moscow,” Trump told reporters, referring to Zelensky. “I’m on nobody’s side. You know whose side I’m on? Humanity’s side.”

Though he’d likely not admit it, the president is in a similar spot to one long occupied by his predecessor President Joe Biden. He’s considering how far he can push Putin while avoiding inflammatory steps that might cross his invisible red lines and widen the war.

Trump’s new tolerance and even appreciation for NATO follows genuine fears that his new term might trigger the political earthquake of a US withdrawal.

Credit goes to quiet diplomacy by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, who’ve worked on Trump and counseled Zelensky on how to approach the US in recent months.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, meanwhile, choreographed an alliance summit in the Netherlands last month that delivered a political triumph for the president. An agreement that NATO states would spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035 allowed Trump to argue he’d forced Europe to get serious about protecting itself and alleviating the burden on the US.

Alongside Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump praised Europe’s spirit for the war in Ukraine, adding, “Ultimately, having a strong Europe is a very good thing — it’s a very good thing.”

Now, NATO has solved another political problem for the president. It’s effectively being used as a front for him to send Patriot missiles to Kyiv. European nations are sending the batteries to Kyiv, after which US NATO allies will buy replacements from the US.

President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.

Rutte portrayed this diplomatic ballet as another win for Trump.

“Mr. President, dear Donald, this is really big, this is really big,” Rutte said, using characteristic praise that comes across as sycophancy to many but that Trump takes at face value. “You called me on Thursday, that you had taken a decision, and a decision is that you want Ukraine (to have) what it needs to have to maintain — to be able to defend itself against Russia — but you do want the Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical,” Rutte said.

The NATO conduit offers at least symbolic distance for Trump as he sends weapons to Ukraine for use in a war against Russia. It allows some level of plausible deniability if MAGA activists disapprove. And it satisfies Trump’s obsession with driving a good financial deal. Expect to hear him argue he’s secured new sales and even jobs for US defense workers.

The promise that other offensive weapons could also get to Ukraine using the same route is unspecific, however. It’s not clear whether Ukraine will get weapons that will enable it to make battlefield advances against Russia. And it’s unlikely that any US assistance will mirror the vast packages of military assistance and aid that were approved by Congress in the Biden administration.

The atmosphere on Capitol Hill is also changing. A drive to sanction Russia more severely already had strong bipartisan support in the Senate, and Trump has shown he can muster majorities in the House for his priorities.

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham and his Democratic co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Monday that their bill could be a “real executive hammer” to isolate Russia. But the measure could still stir dissent in the GOP base at a time when Trump is already upsetting some supporters over the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who opposes more aid to Ukraine, said Tuesday he doesn’t see an urgent need for a bill now that Trump has threatened to impose sanctions on Russia and even secondary punishments on India and China.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul blasted the initiative as “one of the most dangerous bills ever to come before the Senate.” He predicted a total cut-off of trade with China, India and Turkey if they were to be hit by US punishments.

So the domestic politics of Trump’s Ukraine shift are not yet fully settled.

And neither, really, is the geopolitical situation.

Trump has adopted a tougher policy toward Putin, but it’s not definitive or guaranteed to last. The extent of future US military support for Ukraine remains unclear, even if Kyiv’s government is in better standing with the president than ever before. And European NATO states can breathe a sigh of relief about Trump, but his trade war threats have caused a deep transatlantic rift.

All of this means that Putin’s key calculation all along — that he can outlast the West on the war in Ukraine — seems unlikely to significantly shift.

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Europe

UK to lower national voting age to 16 under government proposals

Published

16 hours ago

July 17, 2025

dailyofworld

CNN
—

The United Kingdom could become one of the first European countries to lower the voting age to 16 in all national elections, in what the government is calling a landmark effort to “future-proof” its democracy.

If passed by the parliament, the proposed reforms, unveiled Thursday, would bring national votes in line with elections in Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, where younger voters already cast ballots.

“Young people deserve to have a stake and to have a say in the future of our democracy,” said Rushanara Ali, parliamentary under-secretary for local government in the House of Commons on Thursday.

“When we came into power just over a year ago, the government committed through its manifesto to bring forward measures to strengthen our precious democracy and uphold the integrity of our elections.”

The UK’s move, which could be in place for the next general election, follows a growing global trend toward younger enfranchisement.

Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, welcomed the proposed reforms, telling CNN that lowering the voting age would “help more young people to cast that all-important, habit-forming vote at a point when they can be supported with civic education.”

“Participation is a vital sign of the health of our democracy. If fewer people vote, our democracy becomes weaker,” he added.

In 2008, Austria became the first European country to lower its national voting age to 16, with Malta adopting the change a decade later. In South America, countries including Brazil, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Argentina have permitted voting from age 16 for years.

Across much of the world, however, 18 remains the standard minimum voting age. In Asia, countries such as Indonesia and East Timor have set the threshold at 17, while Singapore, Lebanon, and Oman require citizens to wait until 21 to cast a ballot.

Within the UK, the government’s intentions have drawn scrutiny.

James Yucel, head of campaigns at the center-right thinktank Onward, told CNN that the proposal was “not some noble push for democracy” but instead “political engineering aimed at boosting (Labour’s) support.”

In both opinion polls and votes, younger voters tend to skew more heavily towards Labour than the main opposition Conservatives.

The proposed reforms drew criticism from the Conservative Party on Thursday, with lawmaker and shadow cabinet member Paul Holmes saying in the House of Commons: “Why does this government think a 16-year-old can vote, but not be allowed to buy a lottery ticket, an alcoholic drink, marry, or go to war, or even stand in the elections they are voting in?”

The reforms would also expand acceptable voter ID to include digital formats of existing IDs, such as driving licenses and armed forces’ veterans’ cards. UK-issued bank cards would also be accepted.

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Europe

UK plans to lower voting age to 16 in landmark electoral reform

Published

18 hours ago

July 17, 2025

dailyofworld

Reuters
—

The British government said on Thursday it planned to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all UK elections in a major overhaul of the country’s democratic system.

The government said the proposed changes, which are subject to parliament approvals, would align voting rights across the UK with Scotland and Wales, where younger voters already participate in devolved elections.

“We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in UK democracy,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said in a statement.

Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, the lowest at a general election since 2001, according to a parliamentary report.

According to the House of Commons library, research from countries that have lowered the voting age to 16 shows it has had no impact on election outcomes, and that 16-year-olds were more likely to vote than those first eligible at 18.

Labour, whose popularity has fallen sharply in government after being elected by a landslide a year ago, had said it would lower the voting age if elected.

The reforms would also expand acceptable voter ID to include UK-issued bank cards and digital formats of existing IDs, such as driving licences and Veteran Cards.

To tackle foreign interference, the government said it also planned to tighten rules on political donations, including checks on contributions over £500 ($670) from unincorporated associations and closing loopholes used by shell companies.

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Europe

Ukrainian military leaders stress it would be ‘nearly impossible’ to fight Russia without drones

Published

20 hours ago

July 17, 2025

dailyofworld

Wiesbaden, Germany
CNN
—

Ukraine’s military commander in charge of the country’s drone warfare program urged the US and NATO countries alike on Wednesday to learn from Kyiv’s use of the technology on the battlefield so in the future there are not “hard questions from your children [about] when [their] father will come back.”

“We paid with lives to get this expertise,” Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine, said during a panel discussion at the Association of the US Army’s meeting in Wiesbaden, Germany. “But you can get this expertise out of us, and we will support you the same way you’ve supported us during this war.”

Brovdi spoke at the AUSA conference alongside Brig. Gen. Volodymyr Horbatiuk, the deputy chief of the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They repeatedly emphasized the importance of using drones in warfare. Horabiuk said it is “nearly impossible” to conduct the majority of their warfighting functions without drones, listing off examples of their use including for logistics on the battlefield and intercepting aerial threats, as well as striking assets deep inside Russia — something the world watched in June when Ukraine conducted a large-scale drone attack on Russian airbases thousands of miles from the front lines.

Brovdi and Horbatiuk’s comments come just two days after President Donald Trump vowed to send more air defenses to Ukraine, making a stark shift in his approach to the war as he has grown increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid efforts to reach a peace agreement. They also came hours after Russia launched a barrage of hundreds of drones towards four key regions in Ukraine, hitting multiple cities including the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Asked Wednesday what the audience at the conference should know about fighting against the Russians, Horbatiuk answered bluntly, “Don’t trust Russia.” The packed ballroom, full of NATO military and civilian defense industry officials, broke into laughter and applause. “Remember that any agreement with them doesn’t cost even the paper.”

Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, left, speaks on a panel at the Association of the US Army’s meeting in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

Brovdi elaborated further on Wednesday, telling CNN that putting faith in Putin is “not respectful to yourself.”

Brovdi, who has a background in business, was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine in May this year. Speaking on Wednesday through a translator, he told the story of visiting a “huge” NATO military base in Europe roughly a year ago and being asked by his hosts what he thought about the base and its defenses.

“I answered the following, that four of my battle crews standing only 10km away from this base can destroy it fully in 15 minutes, it would look like Pearl Harbor during the second World War,” Brovdi said through his translator, adding that he didn’t mean it as a threat but as a warning about what could happen if drones were taken into the hands of terrorists.

According to an official release by the office of the president of Ukraine, Brovdi founded his drone reconnaissance team known as “Magyar’s Birds” in the spring of 2022, which has since grown to a full brigade. Brovdi told CNN on Wednesday that he began using drones because he and his troops, an infantry unit, were fired upon by tanks, artillery, “and we [could] not see anything, who was trying to kill us.” They began using drones for reconnaissance, to see who was firing on their position, and then began buying drones used typically for sports and gaming.

“We understood we could put a bit of ammunition on board, and we can deliver it with it,” he said through his translator. “And this is how it starts. It was 27 people, nowadays it’s much more than 2,000.”

According to the release from the office of the president, Brovdi and his unit — 95% of which he said were civilians before the war began, including DJs and artists — had destroyed more than 5,000 enemy targets, and hit more than 10,000 more. A Ukrainian military official later clarified the unit has detected 116,976 enemy targets and destroyed more than 54,500 of them, and killed more than 18,400 enemy personnel.

Brovdi told the audience at AUSA that this was only his second time leaving the country since the war began in 2022, and that he would be back on the battlefield by Thursday. He dryly quipped that “Putin’s propaganda named me as the most wanted enemy, so it [could] be the last time you see me, here.”

The two commanders thanked the countries present at the conference for their support of Ukraine and urged allies and partners to learn from Ukraine’s efforts. Horbatiuk expressed “from the bottom of [his] heart” the appreciation for support to Ukraine and dedication.

“I would like to ask you,” he said in a parting line, “to be more decisive.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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