September 8, 2025
DIANE FRANCIS
“You may not be interested in the war, but the war is interested in you” — Russian Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
On September 5, President Donald Trump restored the Pentagon’s name to the Department of War, which had been scrapped at the end of the Second World War. Some said it was simply rebranding, but it was appropriate because this week the world hurtled toward another geopolitical catastrophe. Trump said the name-change signalled “a message of strength”, a needed comfort given recent events. The week before, Europe nearly lost its senior leaders in a Russian plane sabotage, and China rolled missiles through Beijing in a frightening show of force. Then, on September 7, President Vladimir Putin put America’s “strength” to the test by unleashing the biggest attack on Ukraine since the 2022 invasion. Bombs struck the heart of Ukraine’s democracy, setting Kyiv’s Government District on fire — a blitz that demolishes any illusion that the war will remain contained. Putin thumbed his nose at Trump and chose escalation over negotiation. Trump responded by saying he will impose “phase two” sanctions, and European leaders head to Washington this week to impose joint sanctions on Russia and secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “The Russian economy will be in total collapse, and that will bring President Putin to the table. We are in a race now between how long the Ukrainian military holds up, versus how long the Russian economy holds up.”
Trump may not want war, but he and the world are entering one. Last week, a European Union delegation plane narrowly avoided sabotage. On board: senior commissioners, including Ursula von der Leyen. Had the plane gone down, the war would already look very different. NATO’s Article 5 might have been triggered. Europe could have been dragged directly into conflict with Moscow. It was a near miss that should have shaken Washington awake. Instead, Trump continued ineffective peace efforts and attended the U.S. Open tennis match in New York City. When a reporter suggested he hadn’t done enough to stop Putin, he shot back defensively: “You call that no action? We’ve already hit India with tariffs because of its oil purchases. I haven’t even done phase two yet. Or phase three.” When asked if he had made up his mind to escalate, he said, “I have” without elaboration.
“Phase two” is likely more secondary tariffs on Russia’s oil customers, when, given what’s happening, should be replaced with dramatic measures to choke Moscow’s oil revenues and crush its economy. In an interview with ABC News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Trump’s tariff strategy as “the right idea” and urged European nations to fully stop buying Russian energy. “We have to stop [buying] any kind of energy from Russia, and by the way, anything, any deals with Russia. We can’t have any deals if we want to stop them.” Since the 2022 invasion, Russia has sold around $985bn (£729bn) of oil and gas, according to the
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. A news report last week said that Russia buys its missile fuel from Denmark.
The Trump administration has tried diplomacy, which flopped, but then appeared content to wait and see, as if Putin’s war is a chess game rather than a blood-soaked reality. But the attack on Kyiv’s government headquarters was no random strike: It was a provocation and direct signal to America and all of Ukraine’s allies that Moscow will stop at nothing and considers Ukraine’s government illegitimate. Trump’s charm offensive with Putin has accomplished nothing, cost lives and time, and must now be replaced with tougher measures and resolve.
Unfortunately, Trump’s “phase two” sanctions have been threatened for weeks, along with “phase three”, and yet Putin carries on murdering Ukrainians. Based on such outcomes already, this won’t be a winning strategy, nor will the efforts of his hand-picked envoy, real-estate developer Steve Witkoff, who said: “There’s no doubt about it. There’s a possibility to reshape the Russia-U.S. relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that give a lot of stability to the region. Partnerships create stability.” But Putin is not a real estate developer. He’s a mass murderer.
The Trump team must also realize that this war is not about Ukraine, but it’s about the United States and the civilizational alliance. Putin’s public pronouncements have made this clear, wrote commentator Victor Rud. In July 2022, Putin declared: “This [special military] operation [in Ukraine] means the beginning of a radical breakdown of the US-style world order.” In January 2024, Putin was asked by Russian media as to how he felt about Western countries helping “our enemy?” He replied, “The point is not that they are helping our enemy. They are our enemy.”
For Putin, Trump’s every delay is oxygen. For Ukrainians, it’s blood. For the Chinese, it’s evidence that America is on the decline. Thus, Moscow rains fire, China projects power, and both regimes test whether the West is too slow, too divided, or too distracted to push back. So far, they’re not wrong. Weeks of vague threats about “phase two” or “phase three” have not been executed. Instead, Russia escalates, Europe trembles, and China struts. When asked directly whether Washington’s failure to act emboldened Putin, Trump’s defensive reply was: “You’ll see things happen.” It sounds tough, but to Moscow, this sounds like extended permission.
Sanctions are only powerful if they’re fast and collective. Russia hasn’t been clobbered with tariffs or sufficient sanctions. Dozens of countries like India, Turkey, Hungary, China, Brazil, South Africa, Serbia, and Gulf refiners still buy Russian crude and fill Putin’s purse. Every delay, every muddled message, every misdirected tariff deepens the danger. Ukrainians are fighting and dying not just for their own freedom but for the credibility of the democratic world. If Kyiv falls or if Europe fractures, the consequences will reverberate from the Baltics to the Taiwan Strait. Ironically, Trump plays the tough guy by waging “war” against drug cartels, Iran’s nuclear program, and on American streets to prevent crime. But he treats Putin like a fraternity brother and pulls his punches when it comes to stopping Putin’s World War III from spreading beyond the slaughter in Ukraine.
Russia will eventually lose, given its mediocre military and puny economy, but only if America and Europe declare all-out economic war. There is no room for wishful thinking. Russia must be
bankrupted and its people denied visas or permission to travel. Moscow must be stripped of its membership in the WTO, excoriated at the United Nations and all international organizations, declared a terrorist state, and its artists and athletes must be forbidden from performing anywhere. Finally, it’s time that America’s newly-crowned Department of War be put to the test, to be put on alert, scramble its jets, move more nuclear submarines near Russian targets, and flood Ukraine with weaponry. Most importantly, its Commander in Chief must verbally and economically stare down the sociopath in Moscow. The danger now isn’t about just losing Ukraine. It’s that Putin and Xi are teaching the world that democracies hesitate while autocrats act, and that Trump talks tough but demonstrates only weakness.
