RealClearPolitics reports that the Trump administration is effectively ceding management of Ukraine's future to European partners — pulling back American ownership of the war's diplomatic endgame and leaving the continent to hold whatever ceasefire architecture emerges.
The strategic read is bleak for Kyiv: Europe is fractious, slow, and still dependent on U.S. logistics and intelligence. The question the outlet poses is whether a divided European bloc can simultaneously sustain military pressure on Russia, negotiate a credible peace, and push democratic reform inside a Ukraine still plagued by oligarchic capture.
Who benefits immediately: Putin, who has consistently bet that Western unity dissolves under sustained pressure. Who gets the bill: European taxpayers and Ukrainian civilians. Trump walks away from a war he couldn't win and couldn't end — and calls it a handoff.