There are only two options for Putin and they are both humiliating: British expert explains how Trump double-crossed the Russian president

Ukraine's European partners were quite alarmed by US President Donald Trump's phone conversation with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Some politicians even began to compare it to 1938 Munich Agreement.

In reality, however, Trump has put Putin in a difficult position, leaving the war criminal with a choice of two options, both of which are humiliating. British expert and honorary professor at King's College London Lawrence Freedman wrote about this in his article for the Financial Times.

Freedman emphasized that the head of the White House has put Putin before a difficult choice - either to significantly reduce his maximalist demands or to thwart peace talks and deal with the consequences. The British expert believes that the Kremlin leader will be allowed to keep part of Ukrainian territory under Russian control. However, the Russians will be forced to spend a lot of money on restoring, maintaining, and defending the occupied territories. In addition, Russia will face the prospect that in the future Ukraine will regain its strength and, after some time, return its lands by force.

At the same time, Freedman is confident that Trump is unlikely to meet all of Putin's maximalist demands. However, the expert does not rule out that the head of the White House will force Ukraine to make some concessions, but they will be limited.

In addition, the analyst stated that Putin's negotiating position is not very strong, as the Russian army has limited achievements at the front and suffers large-scale losses. In addition, the missile and drone terror campaign against the Ukrainian energy sector has failed, while Ukrainian drones are successfully destroying Russian oil infrastructure, which is Russia's main source of revenue.

Given all these factors, Putin will be forced to decide whether he can back down from his maximalist demands. Freedman believes that the Russian dictator could agree to a ceasefire only if sanctions are quickly eased. However, if Russia fails in the negotiations, Trump will strengthen Ukraine and impose additional sanctions on Russia.

As a reminder, the US has stated that the issue of Ukraine's borders will be "part of the discussion" in talks with Russia. At the same time, they called the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity "unrealistic."

Earlier, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin failed to occupy the entire territory of Ukraine during a full-scale invasion in February 2022. It can be assumed that the war criminal did not achieve his goal.

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