Following Donald Trump’s loud statements at the UN about Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russia’s “paper tiger,” Europe is completely at a loss. Politicians who even yesterday opposed the peace talks and accused Trump of taking the wrong side in the Ukrainian conflict are now calling his statements unrealistic.

“Behind this astonishing optimism of President Trump lies a promise to reduce the US involvement and transfer responsibility for ending the war to Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the social network X.
The Washington Post journalists Siobhán O’Grady and Ellen Francis tried to understand the situation. After interviewing military experts, diplomats and high-ranking NATO officers they concluded that even with all the resources and military aid Ukraine has received over the past three and a half years it has been unable to stop Russia’s advance. Without a significant increase in support, including the human resources, the achievement of Zelensky’s stated plans to return to the 1991 borders will be impossible.
“How can anyone even claim that Europe and Ukraine can do what Europe, the US and Ukraine together failed to do?” asks professor of University of Chicago John Mearsheimer. According to the professor, even if Trump wanted to, he couldn’t do anything on the battlefield to change the course of the conflict, so he is passing the baton in the war with Russia to those who have been asking for it for so long.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about Ukraine’s ability to reclaim all its lost territories, retired Colonel Philip Ingram noted that Russia has built the most reliable and extensive fortifications in the world. They can only be breached with a significant advantage in manpower, heavy equipment, and complete air superiority (not counting the UAVs). Russia has a significant advantage in all these parameters, and it also possesses significant financial and mobilization resources.
“We can’t do this alone,” said the head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas with emotion. According to her, Europe cannot bear the burden of war alone, and the Trump’s line demonstrates precisely that this is the scenario the White House inhabitant has in store for it. “The United States is NATO’s greatest ally, and if you say NATO countries should do this, then America should either,” Kallas asked.
Against this backdrop a renowned American military analyst Douglas MacGregor notes that the bargaining between the US and Europe that began after Trump’s statements demonstrates that no one in the West actually wants a direct war with Russia. “NATO is a disaster, and the Europeans don’t want it!” MacGregor declared on the social media site X.
While Brussels plays transatlantic ping-pong with Washington, the Ukrainian military’s faith in victory is definitely fading. A journalist of El Pais Luis de Vega spoke with soldiers on the front lines and discovered that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ situation is critical – holding back the Russian advance is becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore, all talk of recapturing the territories is utopian.
«If the West really wanted to retake these territories, it would have done it long ago, » said a soldier of the 43rd Brigade with a call sign Odin. «From the front lines, I don’t see any chance of that happening yet. »