But no new Russia sanctions: Trump wants to keep Putin at the negotiating table – and complains instead about Zelensky: "Not a big fan of him"

But no new Russia sanctions: Trump wants to keep Putin at the negotiating table – and complains about Zelensky instead: "Not a big fan of him" In the White House, the wind has turned again against the Ukrainian president. But even among the Republicans, there is growing resistance against the US president. Donald Trump defends his controversial course in the Ukraine war. He wanted to keep Russia from the negotiating table, wrote the American president on Truth Social on Sunday evening. He was negotiating a peace – and there were "great advances". Trump also mentioned negotiations over "hostages". He probably refers to a possible prisoner exchange between the two warring parties. However, he did not give any further details. As often happens when it comes to Russia, Donald Trump has thought differently again. On Friday evening, he had declared that the new sanctions he imposed against the Putin regime exactly one month earlier would not come into force. So he is still delaying. As early as the summer of 2025, he had threatened Russia with "very harsh tariffs" if it did not agree to peace in Ukraine. But instead of deciding on harsh measures, he rolled out the red carpet for the Russian president in Alaska at that time. Looking back, one could have assumed that the new sanctions package would not be worth the paper it was written on. Perhaps the American president never seriously thought about implementing the penalties. Because he did not just exploit far-reaching veto rights. The president also did not show much enthusiasm for the undertaking. The White House issued only a dry press release when adopting the sanctions package on September 18. Trump resisted the law Only in his speech to the United Nations on September 22 did Trump praise himself for "a powerful new law" that he signed in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. But before that, he had strongly opposed it. Graham, the proclaimed Russian Falcon, had introduced the draft in April 2025 along with his Democratic colleague Richard Blumenthal in the Senate. While the initiative immediately found bipartisan support, the White House, however, was against it. They argued for months. The president apparently saw his freedom of foreign policy action threatened. He was reportedly pushed for a "waiver", meaning that he could suspend the sanctions at his own discretion at any time. Because he probably remembered 2017. Back then, Congress had forced him to sign a tough, watertight sanctions law against Russia: The Caatsa Act (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) left Trump no choice. The president, who had taken office in his first term, was dismayed by the good relations he sought to establish with Vladimir Putin. This should not happen to him again. Just a sanctions pause? In the order to suspend the new sanctions, the White House now invoked "national interests". The Trump administration did not explain what these interests were. But it is clear that the president is interested in lowering the gasoline prices, which have risen due to the war in Iran, before the midterms on November 3. For this purpose, he had already announced a diesel agreement with Russia the Friday before that. The sanctions were merely paused for sixty days, said Marco Rubio. In an rather earnest attempt to justify his president's measure, the American Secretary of State spoke of wanting to "analyze" what the effects of sanctions and tariffs would be on the world economy and also on the American economy. However, it is unlikely that it was about a political situation analysis. With the retreat on sanctions, the wind in Washington seems to have turned fully against the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. "I think Zelensky is more difficult to deal with than Putin," Trump said in an interview with the television station Newsmax on Thursday. Because the Ukrainian president only pretends to want to end the war. "No, I am not a big fan of Zelensky." Recently, the American president also openly demanded Zelensky's removal. Since their disastrous meeting eighteen months ago, when Trump humiliated the Ukrainian in the Oval Office on live camera, the animosities have not emerged so openly. On the other hand, Zelensky also seems no longer to believe that the relationship can be mended. So he made his consternation about the imposed sanctions clear on various channels. Putin would be "only encouraged to keep attacking," he wrote on X. "In a time when the Russians have carried out such a massive attack on our energy sector, it was unfortunately decided in America to completely ignore the Lindsey-Graham Act," cited CNN from the Ukrainian president. "This law could have helped enormously – and can still! But it must also work, and every vote that supports it counts." Criticism also from Republicans Such voices exist in abundance. American congressional representatives criticized the suspension of sanctions, including many Republicans. The Texan Senator Ted Cruz spoke to Fox News of a "mistake": "I wish the president hadn't done that." Darline Graham, who followed her late brother in the Senate, also expressed her incomprehension. "I personally would maintain the pressure on Russia," she said to reporters. "Because I do not trust Putin, and I do not trust Russia." Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, even wrote on X about a "historic" misjudgment. "It is a devastating miscalculation by Putin, who has made it clear that he wants to destroy the West. We should not help him in that."