The sooner Donald Trump wants to end the fighting in Ukraine, the more he will need to first strengthen Ukraine's position in order to convince Vladimir Putin that he can lose. Conversely, the less committed Trump is to defending Ukraine, the less incentive Putin will have to negotiate or compromise..

In practice, this means that Ukraine will be able to continue to inflict very high losses on Russia, stop its advance on the ground, and Putin will know that it will have the support to continue to act for as long as necessary. If Trump wants things to move quickly, the threat needs to be much sharper, says Bloomberg Opinion columnist Mark Champion.

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There are some signs that the new administration's foreign policy team has realized this, as they have begun shifting expectations for the timing of any peace deal from 24 hours after Trump's inauguration to 100 days or more. But so far the only reports of a concrete approach suggest they hope easing oil sanctions might encourage Putin to play fair.

“A meeting with Putin or a proposal to lift sanctions are not meaningless steps, not at all. But in themselves they would be as Trump saw during his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un at a summit in Singapore during his first term as president.. Like Kim, Putin would simply pocket any concessions as free gifts and move on,” the columnist notes..

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To be useful in relations with the Kremlin, any carrot must be accompanied by a stick - and given Putin's massive investment in his invasion of Ukraine, it must be significant. The best option would be to restore the interaction between Ukrainian labor and Western weapons that existed until last year, Champion adds.

Moreover, the columnist is convinced that having more well-equipped soldiers to strengthen Ukraine's defense lines and regain initiative on the battlefield will be critical to convincing Putin to negotiate a real settlement.

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Let us recall that Bloomberg named Putin’s demands in possible negotiations with Trump.

Russia's minimum demands are a neutral Ukraine, an end to further NATO expansion into post-Soviet countries and strict restrictions on the size of the Ukrainian army, says political analyst Pavel Danilin, who cooperates with the Kremlin..

After his inauguration, Trump promises changes in US domestic policy, as well as a new approach to world conflicts. How will this affect Ukraine — Read in Oleg Shamshur’s article “Trump is preparing “shock and awe”. At what cost can he end the war in Ukraine