President Donald Trump is risking unity with G7 nations and threatening to rewrite the narrative around “Russian aggression,” according to officials who claim the U.S. wants to use softer language to describe Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The departure from the Biden-era style of calling a spade a spade comes after Trump and Putin sidelined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and went ahead with peace talks on the country’s Russia problem without him. After the Saudi summit Trump sensationally blamed Ukraine and Zelensky on the war and even called him a “dictator.”
The whole pivot marks a dramatic shift away from the support Ukraine enjoyed under Biden, and Western officials who have witnessed the saga have told the Financial Times that the U.S. is now refusing to reference Russian aggression in official language at all.
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The officials, speaking anonymously, told the publication that terms are still being thrashed out. “We are adamant that there must be a distinction made between Russia and Ukraine. They are not the same,” one official briefed on the matter said. “The Americans are blocking that language, but we are still working on it and hopeful of an agreement,” they added.
“We call on Russia to immediately cease its war of aggression and completely and unconditionally withdraw its military forces from the internationally recognised territory of Ukraine,” last year’s statement said. It mentioned Russian aggression five times.
But now, the Trump Administration wants to rewrite history and call the war the “Ukraine conflict,” another anonymous official added. Recent statements from the U.S. Department of State have deployed such wording. “The conflict in Ukraine” was mentioned by Secretary of State Marco Rubio after a meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.
The change in tone threatens a traditional show of unity among G7 nations usually marked with a statement on the anniversary of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, which kicked off exactly three years ago on Monday.
Meanwhile, Zelensky’s attendance at a virtual summit on the anniversary of the conflict is yet to be shored up, the officials added.
