Russia’s charm offensive on Trump leaves Europe scrambling to win him back
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Aug. 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
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Russia appears to be relishing Europe and Ukraine’s discomfort after a week of outspoken criticism from both the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The growing divide has seen the Kremlin and Russian state media lead a charm offensive praising Moscow’s “alignment” with Washington.
Russia has watched on as Washington has appeared to pour cold water on its alliances with Ukraine and Europe over the last week.
That began when the White House last Friday released its new national security strategy which questioned whether Europe could remain “reliable allies,” and said the U.S. should reestablish strategic stability with Russia.
Then Trump said this week in an unguarded interview with Politico that Europe was a “decaying” region with “weak” leaders. The president also backed fresh elections in Ukraine, saying it appeared increasingly undemocratic.
Separately, Trump also slammed Ukraine’s approach to peace talks, claiming earlier this week that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hadn’t even read the U.S.’ draft peace proposal to end the war, while Russia, Trump said, was “fine with it.”
Charm offensive
For Russia, that has meant going on a charm offensive to praise Trump and to promote a sense that Washington and Moscow are aligned on how to end the almost four-year war. That opportunity has only grown amid Trump’s open frustration with Ukraine and Europe’s leadership.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia appreciated Trump’s “desire for dialogue and for resolving the conflict in Ukraine” and that the two sides shared a “fundamental understanding that a lasting settlement is impossible without eliminating the root causes of the crisis.”
For Russia, those “root causes” of the war include NATO enlargement in eastern Europe, a pro-Western leadership in Ukraine and a desire to occupy the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, where pro-Russian separatists have been backed by Russia long before the current war started in 2022.
A trader watches as U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they meet to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., August 15, 2025.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
As such, any U.S.-backed peace plan that eradicates some of those bugbears — and hands over the Donbas region to Russia and rules out Ukraine’s succession to NATO — as well as a deal that forces leadership elections in Ukraine, is music to Russia’s ears.
That’s in large part why Moscow has been so keen to align itself with Trump and the “original” U.S.-backed peace plan that was devised with its input and without Ukraine’s involvement.
Battle over Trump
Meanwhile, Ukraine and its European…
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