Newsweek decided to interview foreign experts and find out whether they believe that the new head of the White House, Donald Trump, will be able to stop the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine in 2025. Most of them are convinced that he will.
Points of attention
- Experts believe that Trump can stop the war by imposing sanctions on Russian oil.
- A peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow in 2025 may not be signed due to Putin's position.
Trump knows how to stop Putin
The forecast was made by Cory Shake, senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy research at the American Enterprise Institute.
In his opinion, a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow in 2025 will be catastrophic only if Trump and European allies stop assisting Ukraine.
However, the expert believes that the new US president will still use his powerful trump card to stop the war.
The only possible change to the rules of the game is for the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russian oil, which would make continuing the war too expensive for Russia, emphasized Cory Sheik.
There may be problems with concluding a peace agreement
This warning was voiced by Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
According to the latter, a ceasefire in 2025 is possible, but signing a peace agreement does not seem realistic to him at the moment.
The expert suggested that Kyiv and Moscow could indeed agree on de-escalation and turn the existing front line into a kind of border.
But agreements on broader issues — such as Ukraine’s geopolitical orientation and the status of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia — will be out of reach. The result will be a frozen conflict rather than a lasting peace — perhaps reminiscent of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Kupchan stressed.
Kateryna Stepanenko, deputy group leader of the Institute for the Study of War, also shared her opinion.
She does not hide that she considers a peace agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 2025 unlikely, because Putin will seek the total surrender of Ukraine and the liquidation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
