Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, but the conflict still rages

President Donald Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in office. The conflict still rages.

President Donald Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in office. But nearly 100 days into his second term, the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv grinds on.

Russian forces continue to batter Ukraine, devastating civilian areas. Ukrainian troops have mustered a resistance against the odds, though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on edge as his resources grow perilously thin. Meanwhile, Trump has suggested a deal is in the works while also expressing skepticism that any agreement will be reached soon.

“We have the confines of a deal, I believe,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, saying he wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to “sign it and be done with it and just go back to life." 

Trump has lately shifted blame back and forth between the two leaders, lashing out at Zelenskyy for “prolonging” the “killing field,” and then blasting Putin for complicating negotiations with strikes on Ukraine late last week that were “very bad timing.”  

As Trump struggles to resolve a complicated geopolitical crisis that started more than three years ago with Putin’s brazen full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has admitted he’s been frustrated by the negotiations — and now says that his promise of an immediate end to the conflict was an “exaggeration” made in “jest."