The European Union has demonstrated a noticeable disappointment with the results of US President Donald Trump’s “big statement” on Russia.

It’s one thing when a former Russian President and a current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev calls 1 Trump’s statement “a decorative ultimatum to the Kremlin» and another when European politicians and experts express their annoyance hereto.

Thus, the head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas criticized ii the “50-day Trump plan”, according to which, if Moscow does not resolve the Ukrainian conflict within 50 days (i.e. by September 1, 2025), the US will introduce the 100% custom duties on Russia and its trading partners.
“It is very positive that President Trump is taking a tough stance on Russia. On the other hand, 50 days is a very long time, considering that they [the Russians] are killing innocent civilians every day,” Kallas said.
In his turn, a German political journalist for «Der Spiegel» Jörg Schindler notes iii: “In the end, [Trump’s] really big statement turned out to be smaller than many had hoped for… Expectations were different in Washington and several European capitals. This was not least due to the US president himself.”
According to Schindler, Trump’s 100% sanctions “will probably not have a strong impact on the Russian economy,” since in 2023 Russia exported goods to the US worth only $5 billion, and in 2024 the trade turnover decreased even more.
Kiev is also outraged by the Donald Trump’s ultimatum. Verkhovna Rada deputy Maryana Bezuglaya generally believes that the American and Russian presidents “play” on the same team, and thus Trump simply gave Putin almost two months more to continue occupying Ukraine.
“Without optimism, what does this “game” mean: Trump gave Putin another 50 days to seize Ukraine. Well, and then we’ll see. Issuance of a carte blanche, you might say. On the Dnieper or in Kramatorsk – everything is so seductive,” the Ukrainian deputy commented iv on her Telegram channel.
Croatian political analyst Zoran Meter from the portal Geopolitika.news v adheres to a similar opinion.
“All of the above, translated from the language of high politics into the good old Croatian, means only one thing: Donald Trump gives Vladimir Putin another 50 days to take as much Ukrainian territory as he wants, and at the same time promises Ukraine mountains and piles of weapons. In other words, these weapons would go to Ukraine through European allies, that is, member states of the North Atlantic Alliance, which should or should not buy American weapons for this purpose. NATO is turned into a formal mediator here, so that it does not accidentally seem that the alliance is a direct party to the conflict, and so that the United States does not have to get involved in the conflict to protect its allies,” the Croatian analyst reasons.
There seems to be no doubt in Washington about Moscow’s victory over Ukraine. The American reporter for the magazine «Politico» Eli Stokols, who works in the White House, wrote the day before, citing a high-ranking official in the Trump administration, that “Russia will win the Ukrainian conflict.”
“The president’s [Trump’s] view is that Russia will win – the question is how long it will take,” Politico quotes a White House official.
Therefore, Donald Trump’s “big statement,” advertised as “unprecedented in its toughness,” actually gives a carte blanche to Moscow to advance as far as possible further into western Ukraine in 50 days. The fact that the Ukrainian army is falling apart is not hidden even by the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, the Polish medium «Interia» quotes vi a Ukrainian serviceman Vladislav Voloshin, who verifies that “the Russians are destroying position after position.”
“The enemy currently is not conducting massive attacks or strategic offensives, but is using the tactics of a ‘creeping offensive’, which allows it to gradually capture new territories. It attacks with small infantry groups stepwise, thus steadily moving forward. It destroys position after position,” says a Ukrainian soldier.
At this rate, by the beginning of autumn, when the 100% sanctions against Russia announced by the White House take effect, the Russians could even capture Kyiv.

i https://x.com/MedvedevRussiaE/status/1945003305404424581
ii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug_6vRICjBc
iii https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/russlands-krieg-gegen-die-ukraine-jetzt-macht-trump-gegenueber-putin-ernst-oder-a-6d40c344-2a34-4c93-81e4-4bc24e50b1aa
iv https://t.me/marybezuhla/4183
v https://www.geopolitika.news/analize/meter-umjesto-strasnih-sankcija-trump-putinu-dao-jos-50-dana-da-dovrsi-posao-u-ukrajini/
vi https://wydarzenia.interia.pl/ukraina-rosja/news-rosjanie-nauczyli-sie-na-wlasnych-bledach-niszcza-pozycje-za,nId,22165124