No One Will Press On Putin: the United States and Europe Have Once Again Demonstrated Their Weakness

The meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping produced no specifics about Ukraine, while Europe demonstrates weakness in countering Russia's hybrid warfare.

In a world where paper guarantees no longer work, only a strong domestic defense industry and a willingness to strike back earn respect. Read more in an exclusive column for 24 Channel.

Pomposity without specifics for Ukraine

The Trump–Xi meeting was arranged with maximum pomp — red carpets for the Chinese leader and his wife Peng Liyuan, symbolic red decor, and an elegant state dinner. Yet behind all these protocol gestures lies a total lack of concrete plans for Ukraine.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs dryly reported an “exchange of views on the Ukrainian crisis,” but there are no real agreements or signals of pressure on Putin in the final statements. Volodymyr Zelensky called on Trump to involve Xi in pressuring the Kremlin, but the war in Ukraine never became a priority topic for the major players.

Double standards and business with dictators

While world diplomacy talks continue, Trump is conducting a trade war with Canada and at the same time does not renounce trading Belarusian potash. Trading with dictator Lukashenko is effectively shooting yourself in the foot, because he will surely use it as a method of political intimidation to weaken sanctions.

This is a manifestation of classic Western policy, where economic gain regularly overrides stated values. They are ready to turn a blind eye to internal crimes of authoritarian regimes and to tolerate anyone — until dictators begin spreading their rules beyond their own “bandit states.”

Europe's weakness provokes new sabotage attacks

Russia's hybrid war is fully underway on European soil. In Poland, Starlink terminals that provide internet to Ukraine are exploding, and Kremlin propagandists from RIA Novosti openly threaten Lithuania: “Russia awaits another NMD operation, but it will be very short.” Yet the reaction of European countries remains perplexed.

When a Russian plane breaches Polish airspace, the response is only statements that “apologies will suffice.” At the same time, France is effectively advancing the lifting of sanctions on Russian oligarchs Usmanov and Fridman. Such demonstrative weakness and irresponsibility of Europe directly provokes Russians to new sabotage.

Strange Macron initiatives and real threats

According to Reuters, Europe will not be able to defend itself from a direct Russian attack for at least 2030 year due to critical gaps in air defense, anti-missile defense, and ground forces. But instead of real security enhancements we hear Emmanuel Macron proposing a so-called “double moratorium.”

France's president worries about possible fuel shortages in the world and urges Ukraine to stop strikes on Russian refineries in exchange for halting hostilities in the Black Sea. This is an utterly asymmetric idea: stopping attacks on oil infrastructure benefits Moscow far more than Kyiv from any ephemeral ceasefire.

In this world, only power decides

While Russia continues to commit genocide and strikes residential high-rises in Kyiv or medical clinics in Zaporizhzhia with drones, we do not sit idly by. Ukraine is destroying legitimate military and industrial targets of the aggressor — the Iskra plant in Ul’yanovsk has been damaged, Lukoil-Permnefteorgsynthes has burned, Synthesis rubber in Voronezh burning, and the Novoshakhtinsky refinery.

The Budapest Memorandum long ago became a thing of the past, and security guarantees turned into scraps. All talk of European values, human rights, and international rules crashes against harsh reality. The world pays attention only to power: when you have a strong defense industry, you build your own missiles and decide for yourself where to strike the enemy — only then do people start talking to you seriously.