US President Donald Trump’s warming relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could prove to be bad news for Vladimir Putin, according to Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent of The Independent.
As Trump’s tone toward Ukraine softens and his patience with Moscow wanes, The Independent suggests that Zelensky’s careful diplomacy, once strained to the breaking point, may now be positioning Kyiv to gain new leverage in Washington, and new headaches for the Kremlin.
The British paper reports that the once-hostile dynamic between the two leaders has transformed into an unlikely friendship, and that shift could alter the balance in the ongoing US-Ukraine-Russia triangle.
Feinberg writes that the “budding bromance” between Trump and Zelenskyy was on full display during the Ukrainian president’s visit to the White House on Friday, 17 October.
Just eight months after a tense Oval Office shouting match, Trump praised Zelenskyy as “a very strong leader” who had “endured a lot,” and spoke warmly of their “very good” relationship.
The Ukrainian president came to Washington seeking Tomahawk cruise missiles - long-range US weapons that would allow Kyiv to hit military and energy targets far inside Russia. Trump acknowledged the missiles’ potential transfer as “an escalation,” but did not rule it out, signaling a possible opening in policy.
Trump also expressed admiration for Ukraine’s rapidly advancing drone technology and even suggested a possible arms-for-innovation exchange, hinting that US access to Ukrainian drones could be traded for missile systems.
Despite Trump’s continued insistence that Putin “wants to end” the war, Feinberg notes that the US president has shown growing frustration with the Russian leader - a tension that may work in Kyiv’s favor.
“If Trump feels as if Putin is playing him when they meet again in Budapest,” Feinberg writes, “there’s no telling what benefits Zelenskyy could reap from that breach.”
