Trump grows disillusioned with Putin over unmet war promises, WSJ reports
Donald Trump is growing more disillusioned with Vladimir Putin, as the Russian president's private assurances of a swift battlefield victory over Ukraine have repeatedly failed to materialize, sources close to the US administration told The Wall Street Journal, according to The Moscow Times.
Trump initially believed Russia's military would defeat Ukraine outright. Putin told him so directly and repeatedly, including in phone calls: on July 14 he described Kyiv's position as "critical," and on March 9 he spoke of a "very successful advance" by Russian troops. After meeting Putin in Alaska in August 2025, Trump said Ukraine had already lost the war and that President Volodymyr Zelensky *"had no more cards to play."
Trump has since told Putin he wants the war to end, citing staggering losses at the front. Western estimates put Russian casualties at roughly 1.4 million killed or wounded, with close to 2 million total on both sides. British intelligence estimates around 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.
A shifting read on Zelensky
US officials say Putin has not abandoned his strategic goal of subordinating Ukraine, despite the losses and despite Ukrainian drone strikes reaching cities in Siberia more than 3,000 kilometers from the border. Even so, WSJ's sources say Trump remains optimistic about a peaceful settlement.
He has reportedly been impressed by Ukraine's resistance, including long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory that have hit dozens of refineries and, more recently, logistics hubs. Trump is also said to admire Ukraine's drone industry, which produces more than a million units a year, and the effectiveness of Kyiv's air defenses against Shahed drones.
Those developments, combined with pressure from European leaders, have gradually shifted Trump's view of Zelensky, whom he increasingly sees as a possible winner. But WSJ's sources caution that the shift may not last: Putin has repeatedly managed to bring Trump and his circle back around to his own view in the past.
Kremlin holds its line
Earlier this summer, the White House planned to send envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner back to Moscow for talks; the trip was postponed. The Kremlin, meanwhile, keeps insisting the goals of its "special military operation" — its official term for the invasion — will be met, that Russian forces are "advancing," and that a "buffer zone" is needed along the Ukrainian border, citing in part Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region.
According to the WSJ, Trump's latest proposal to Putin is an aerial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which he plans to discuss with Zelensky, who has recently arrived in Washington. The Kremlin says it sees "nothing concrete" in the new proposals. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov made that statement on July 27; a day later he added that the threat posed by the "Kyiv regime" must be "prevented and eliminated once and for all."
Translation by Iurie Tataru
