Does Trump Simply Like Putin More? Europe Fears the President's Personal Dislike of Zelenskyy Blocks a Fair Peace

After 20 months of upheaval in transatlantic relations, a growing number of European officials fear the United States is siding with Russia in the war in Ukraine — and that the reason is as much personal as political: President Donald Trump simply does not like Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a throwaway comment this week, Trump made clear that he does not regard the war as a conflict with fault on both sides. "Russia frankly has been fine on Ukraine," the US president said. "They have not been doing that much."

To residents of Kyiv — who have endured weeks of intensifying bombardment — and Ukraine's allies across Europe, the remark confirmed a growing impression that the US is taking Russian leader Vladimir Putin's side in the war.

"American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for already almost two years," the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told the European Parliament on Tuesday. The reason Ukraine hasn't "surrendered on Putin's terms" so far is because Europe has been providing so much support, she added.

As they search for explanations for Trump's latest turn against Ukraine, some European officials and diplomats think it comes down to the president's personal preferences as much as his country's political aims.

"I do think it's a personal thing," said former British Cabinet minister David Lidington, now a distinguished fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a leading security think tank in London. "Trump is self-centered — his personal predilections for dictators and autocrats, his desire to give opportunities to US businesses … are very important parts of his motivation."

In private, EU officials agree. "Trump doesn't like [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. He just doesn't like him," said one government official who has observed both men closely. "That makes it harder to get the US to help on peace. Everything is a rational business deal with Trump, until it's not."

A diplomat from an EU country — granted anonymity, like others in this report, to discuss sensitive matters — said the inconsistent Trump could change his mind again and reverse recent moves against Ukraine. The US president has chopped and changed on many issues, "except one thing," the diplomat said. "He seems to be supportive of the Russians. He's been critical of Ukraine, the EU, NATO, but hardly ever said anything critical about Putin. It is striking. We have to deal with an administration that seems to be more pro-Russian than anything else." The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

For Ukraine and its European allies, the idea that nothing can or will change Trump's feelings about Zelenskyy is a bleak one. After four-and-a-half years of war, Kyiv is running low on funding and air defences, and — amid swelling support for Europe's populist right — faces a potential loss of political support in the months ahead.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met the Ukrainian president and the leaders of Norway and Finland for talks in Oslo on Tuesday, and will head to St. Petersburg on Wednesday to discuss peace proposals with the Russian leadership as the White House pushes hard for a ceasefire. One option Putin will be offered is a three-way leaders' summit with Trump and Zelenskyy.

Previous efforts to get the Russian president to attend such a meeting have failed, however, and EU diplomats do not believe Putin is showing any genuine desire for a ceasefire. "There is a clear consensus across Europe that Putin does not want peace," a second EU diplomat said. "He will need to be forced into peace."

But instead of making demands of Putin, Trump has ratcheted up his pressure on Zelenskyy, even amid escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities this month. Ukraine's leader is feeling the strain, as he told his EU counterparts in private meetings in Brussels last week, according to the first diplomat. In a succession of highly critical comments in recent days, Trump has said Zelenskyy "doesn't care" and "doesn't want to end this war", and should be replaced as leader or as Ukraine's negotiator. "President Putin would like to see a settlement," Trump said. "President Zelenskyy could have solved this war, or he could have made a deal, many times."

Trump's animosity may date back to an incident during his first term in 2019, when he urged the Ukrainian leader to help with an investigation into Joe Biden, who eventually defeated Trump in the following presidential election, Lidington said. A succession of hostile encounters since — including in the Oval Office in February 2025 — has reinforced the impression. "It was clear that in the infamous meeting in the White House that Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance had planned that public beating-up of Zelenskyy and it struck me then that there was a strong personal element to this," he said.

The picture on the ground is also alarming for Kyiv. In recent days, Zelenskyy has warned his country is suffering more civilian casualties because the US has cut back on support, including Starlink and Starshield services that help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks and plan operations. "We still have no explanation for this, just different strange stories," Zelenskyy told US congressmen on Monday. This month, the advanced warnings of incoming Russian missile attacks from US partners have also failed to come through as normal, and Ukraine is running low on Patriot missile interceptors, he said. The Pentagon has not issued an official comment on the complaints.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said 328 civilians were killed and more than 2,000 wounded across Ukraine last month, an 85 percent increase compared to September 2025. The UN said the first two weeks of October were among the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine in years, driven by increased missile and drone strikes.

There was a more hopeful note from Oslo. "Today was a good day for peace," Finland's President Alexander Stubb said after attending the talks. "On a substantive and technical level we have actually made a lot of progress under the radar in the past week or so and now I feel that the process is back on track," Stubb said, adding: "Hopefully, we don't do any backtracking."

Attention now turns to Wednesday, when Witkoff flies to Russia for discussions about peace proposals. Several EU leaders, meanwhile, want to revive the bitter debate over raiding Russia's frozen assets to fund Ukraine's war — because, whichever way Trump's feelings lean, Europe may have to find a way to keep Ukraine in the fight on its own.