Trump backs Zelenskyy as Ukraine holds ground; NATO allies pledge support

Donald Trump walked back months of skepticism about Ukraine's prospects on Wednesday, telling reporters in the Oval Office that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was managing the war "pretty well" and "holding his own." The shift marked a notable departure from Trump's earlier assessment that the Ukrainian president lacked the cards to win. "A lot of people dying on both sides," Trump acknowledged, "but I think he's doing pretty well." The comment came as European leaders gathered in Berlin to coordinate what they called a "strong signal of support" for Kyiv ahead of a NATO summit scheduled for early July in Ankara.

Germany's chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted his counterparts from France, Britain, Italy, and Poland on Wednesday, along with a video call from NATO's secretary general Mark Rutte. The message was deliberate and unified: Russia needed to understand that Ukraine remained strong and that European commitment to Kyiv's defense was unwavering. Merz proposed that NATO's European members offer Ukraine a substantial financing commitment, framing it as essential to sustaining the country through what analysts increasingly recognize as a protracted conflict. Thirty-two nations, including the United States, are expected to attend the summit in Turkey on July 7 and 8.

Meanwhile, Ukraine was escalating its own pressure on Moscow. Zelenskyy announced that he had instructed his military and intelligence services to strike preemptively against Russian facilities being used to expand the war effort. Ukrainian drones knocked out power in Simferopol, the largest city in Russian-held Crimea, and targeted installations across central and southern Russia on the same day the European leaders were meeting. The strategy appeared designed to degrade Russia's capacity to sustain operations while simultaneously signaling to Moscow that continued fighting would exact mounting costs.

The human toll of the conflict remained visible in the daily reports from the front. A Russian strike on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine killed two mine disposal experts working for Norwegian People's Aid, an Oslo-based humanitarian organization. The attack occurred in the village of Novopetrivka on Wednesday, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Four other specialists were wounded in the same strike. All of those affected were Ukrainian citizens, according to the deputy head of the region's military administration. The two deaths added to a casualty count that, as Trump noted, continued to mount on both sides.

Back in Russia, the government was tightening its grip on domestic dissent. Maxim Kruglov, the 39-year-old deputy leader of the Yabloko party—one of Russia's few remaining opposition voices—was convicted of spreading lies about the Russian army and sentenced to seven years in prison. Arrested in October, Kruglov had faced charges stemming from two Telegram posts he made in 2022 criticizing the war. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial, but the verdict seemed to confirm his assertion that public dissent had effectively become illegal. The conviction underscored the narrowing space for opposition within Russia even as the war ground on without resolution.

The convergence of these developments suggested a conflict settling into a new phase. Trump's endorsement of Zelenskyy's performance, coupled with Europe's commitment to sustained financing, signaled that Western support for Ukraine was not wavering despite the war's length and cost. Ukraine's escalating strikes on Russian infrastructure indicated Kyiv's determination to force negotiations from a position of strength rather than capitulation. And Russia's suppression of domestic opposition suggested Moscow was preparing for a prolonged struggle. The NATO summit in July would test whether that European unity could be translated into concrete resources and strategy.