Trump Seems to Be Warming to What Europe Wants for Ukraine: New Russia Sanctions

Since President Trump retook the Oval Office, leaders across Europe have prodded him to forcefully back Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. In recent weeks, some of them tried a new approach in private conversations with a president who they know often responds well to flattery.

In exchanges with Mr. Trump, those leaders, including Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, praised the president for sending American bombers to deliver a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program, according to two European officials familiar with the matter.

They told Mr. Trump he could do something similar in Ukraine — not with bombs, but with a fresh batch of penalties aimed at crippling Russia’s economy.

The appeals were the latest chapter in a longstanding effort to bring Mr. Trump onboard with European attempts to turn the tide in Ukraine through a punishing hit on Russia’s economy.

The president finally appears to be warming to the idea.

Mr. Merz and his counterparts in France, Britain and Italy have publicly told Mr. Trump that new U.S. sanctions could force President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to enter serious negotiations about ending the war. Without them, Mr. Putin has been escalating and prolonging Russia’s attacks in an attempt to break Ukraine’s defenses.

Those escalations appear to have frayed Mr. Trump’s patience with Mr. Putin. The come after months of phone calls between the leaders and amid fading hopes from the White House that Mr. Trump could lean on his relationship with Mr. Putin — and pressure Ukraine — to broker a truce to end the war.