But, given the pushback he got from the Kremlin, Trump did not have room to promise much more. Last week, after his summit with Putin in Alaska, he had already set aside his main source of leverage over the Russians—the threat of sanctions and tariffs that could weaken Putin’s economy. “We don’t have to think about that right now,” Trump remarked.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that it was clear at Friday's U.S.-Russia Alaska summit that U.S. President Donald Trump and his team sincerely wanted to achieve a long-term and sustainable peace in Ukraine.