US President Donald Trump made his most pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia comments on his presidency to date this week, but he has yet to impose any new sanctions on Russia whatsoever, or follow through on his promises to restart weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

“We hear a lot of bullshit from Putin, to be honest. He’s always very nice, but then it all turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said.

"We will send more weapons. We have to do it; they must be able to defend themselves," he stated. Trump also promised to urgently deliver 10 Patriot interceptor missiles to Kyiv. Concurrently, he encouraged European countries, including Germany, to participate in arms supplies and transfer their own Patriot batteries.

The comments follow a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend, which the Kyiv leader described as their “best conversation ever.” The US announced it was halting all new weapons deliveries this week, including the crucial Patriot missiles that are essential for Ukraine’s air defences, but following the call Trump said he would reverse that decision. Increasingly, it seems he is coming round to the idea that the US is obliged to ensure Ukraine has the means to defend itself from Russia’s aggression.

In public at least, Trump’s rhetoric on Ukraine has now reached its most explicitly supportive level since he took office. “Regardless of whether it was fair that we gave them all this money, the Ukrainians have shown themselves to be very brave,” he said. He also reiterated a promise made on July 8 to resume weapons deliveries to Kyiv, though it remains unclear whether this refers to restoring halted shipments that are part of a package organised by the former Biden administration, or launching a new package altogether.

Trump is clearly frustrated by the lack of progress in bringing the Ukraine war to an end, something he promised to do on the “first day” for his presidency. After getting off to a good start by organising the first face-to-face talks between the warring parties in February, the ceasefire talks have now stalled following the last meeting in Istanbul on June 3 and are currently dead in the water.

Following his sixth official call with Putin, Trump admitted that “no progress” was made and he said he was “not happy” about it. Now he has gone further and is openly criticising Putin for not playing ball. The day after the phone call, Putin launched a devastating missile barrage on Ukraine’s cities, which has only intensified since then as the conflict becomes a missile war that Ukraine can’t win.

So far Trump’s strategy has been to bully Ukraine into accepting Putin’s demands, largely the same as were agreed during the 2022 Istanbul peace deal. The talks came to a head with Trump’s seven-point “final offer” peace plan presented in London in April. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected the plan, largely because it included recognising Russia’s sovereignty over the five regions it currently occupies, and made a counteroffer that said no talks could start until Russia implemented an unconditional ceasefire. Putin rejected that.

Since then Trump has been reluctant to act. He has put no pressure on the Kremlin and remains uncommitted to imposing any sanctions on Russia at all. When asked by journalists this week whether he was going to support Senator Lindsey Graham’s “bone crushing” sanctions bill that would impose 500% tariffs on any country doing business with Russia, all he said was that he was “looking at it carefully.”

For all his tough talk, Trump remains very reluctant to launch new legislation designed to hurt Russia. During the talks ahead of the EU’s new seventeenth sanctions package the idea of cutting the oil price cap on Russian oil exports from $60 to $45 was floated, but then vetoed as the White House would not agree to it. This year oil prices have fallen to around $60 anyway, making the oil price cap sanctions meaningless, and it is legal for EU shipping companies to carry Russian oil if they want to.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking told The Wall Street Journal that the president views the current draft of the bill as potentially constraining. “He believes that the adoption of the bill in its current form will deprive him of room to manoeuvre,” the source said, while adding that the White House is working with Congress to shape a version that could help “end the war.”

Senator Graham has already secured verbal support from 85 senators, according to Axios, suggesting the bill could advance without significant opposition. But Trump’s approval remains pivotal. Without it, the White House risks signalling a split in Republican foreign policy consensus on how to pressure Moscow.

Meanwhile, Trump’s newly stated willingness to aid Ukraine with air defence systems—Kyiv’s most urgent request as Russian missile attacks intensify—marks a notable reversal. But a large question mark hangs over if any Patriot ammunition will actually be delivered. The Guardian reported this week that the US stocks are currently at 25% of what the Pentagon assesses as the levels needed to carry out any of its strategic plans should the US be pulled directly into a conflict.

Supplying Ukraine with air defence missiles for the last three years had already depleted the US surplus of Patriot missiles, but re-supplying Israel following the intense missile bombardment by Iran during the recent 12-day war seems to have cut deeply into the US strategic stock of ammo as well – to the point where the Pentagon will be extremely reluctant to dig deeper into its already low stocks.

As The Bell reported, Ukrainian officials are cautious in reading too much into Trump’s pledges, citing frequent shifts in his foreign policy positions and Trump’s propensity to talk big but then change his mind on a whim.

Graham’s sanctions have also already been watered down after the EU complained that it would also get caught up in the sanctions as it remains hooked on Russian gas, importing significant, and growing, amounts of Russian LNG and oil products via refineries in China and India. Graham reportedly agreed to amend his sanction bill to accommodate EU fears. Nonetheless, Graham said in a statement after Trump’s remarks on July 8 that the Senate would soon consider his sanctions legislation, although he offered no timeline.