Vance had issued a warning, using those exact words, two weeks earlier during his address to the Munich Security Conference.

But the world learnt during Zelensky’s first White House meeting with Trump’s second administration last Feb. 28 that the warning was not only mere words.

One year on, the world has witnessed other examples of Trump’s untraditional approach to foreign policy and diplomacy.

In one memorable moment last May, Trump dimmed the lights in the Oval Office to play a video for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa about allegations of white genocide in his country.

Ramaphosa, a critic of the United States, is part of the BRICS intergovernmental organization, which seeks to undermine the U.S.’s dominance in the world’s economy.

In January, Trump rankled European allies with his desire to “own” Greenland for national security and economic reasons. 

Greenland, as a Danish territory, is technically protected by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and any action by Trump against it is likely to undercut the alliance.

But when it comes to Ukraine, Trump has kept his public criticism of Zelensky to a minimum, reserving it for behind-the-scenes, despite his Ukrainian counterpart appearing to campaign for Democrats in 2024.

Trump’s change in strategy was captured in a photo of him and Zelensky last April, sitting knee-to-knee on chairs set up inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican for their first meeting since their Oval Office confrontation, before the late Pope Francis’ funeral. Zelensky, days later, agreed to a critical minerals deal with the U.S. without security guarantees. 

At the same time, after a second meeting at the White House last October to discuss the possibility of Trump sending Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles, Trump surprised Zelensky with a post-sit-down Truth Social post demanding that Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin “stop the war where they are.” 

Since then, Trump has reiterated that both Zelensky and Putin support a ceasefire and a longer-term peace deal.

“Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky is going to have to get moving, otherwise he’s going to miss a great opportunity,” he told reporters earlier this month. “He has to move.”

Vance, who, as a senator, was seen as a strong critic of U.S. funding for the war in Ukraine, told the New York Post last October that the relationship with Zelensky had “turned over a new leaf.”

Regardless, Trump’s strategy change has not mitigated criticism of his foreign policy and diplomacy regarding Russia and Ukraine.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior director Mark Montgomery, for one, criticized the confrontation as “unnecessary, although it served as fair warning to Zelensky that Trump was not going to try and hold Russia accountable as the aggressor in the same manner [former President] Joe Biden had.”

Trump and his aides have repeatedly contended that Russia perceiving the U.S. as an impartial interlocutor is crucial to securing a peace deal, a so-called “day one” campaign promise for his second administration. 

But Montgomery, who is also the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s executive director in addition to being a senior director at the conservative think tank, countered that “since the meeting, Trump has utterly failed to provide a balanced negotiating process that attempts to hold Russia in any way accountable and extract the concessions necessary to get to peace.”  

“On the other hand, Trump has extracted [maximum] concessions from Ukraine,” he said. “In general, Trump’s predilection to traumatize allies and partners while he coddles authoritarians and thugs is counterproductive and threatens America’s long-term national security interests.”

Vandenberg Coalition executive director Carrie Filipetti, a former Trump deputy assistant secretary of state for Cuba and Venezuela and deputy special representative for Venezuela, defended the president, arguing he has “always viewed himself as a dealmaker, and knows that to maintain that reputation he needs to hold people accountable if they refuse to negotiate in good faith.” 

“This is why he ultimately struck Iran during Operation Midnight Hammer, why he apprehended Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela, and likely why his tone has shifted on the Russia-Ukraine war,” Filipetti told the Washington Examiner. 

Last year, Trump and Vance may have seen Zelensky as an “impediment” to a “strong” minerals deal, arguments over which contributed to the confrontation, but now they “rightly” see Putin as an impediment to a peace agreement, according to Filipetti.

“Zelensky is willing to make sacrifices — as long as they will contribute to a just and lasting peace – but Putin’s increasingly expansionist goals are not aligned with his recent military failures, nor with President Trump’s priorities,” she said.

From the White House’s perspective, Americans appreciate Trump’s “candor” as the president has “openly expressed his frustration with both sides of the Russia-Ukraine War because he wants to stop the senseless killing.” 

“Over the past few months, the president’s team has made tremendous progress towards ending this conflict, and he remains hopeful that these discussions will lead to a peace deal,” White House national security spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Washington Examiner. 

A trilateral meeting between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia is expected next week, with the potential for a leaders’ summit in its aftermath. 

This week marked the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which this year coincided with Trump’s first State of the Union of his second administration.

“We’re working very hard to end the ninth war, the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine, where 25,000 soldiers are dying each and every month,” Trump said in the House of Representatives chamber on Tuesday night. “Think of that. 25,000 soldiers are dying a month in a war which would have never happened if I were president, would have never happened.”

Approximately 1.8 million people have been killed or injured during the war, two-thirds of whom are estimated to be Russian.

But even though Trump has not negotiated a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he has gotten greater cooperation from Europe to help Ukraine with the war and sanctioned Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil.

The U.S. has appropriated $188 billion for the war, in addition to providing Ukraine with a $20 billion loan, but has only disbursed 58% of it, whether for military, budgetary, or humanitarian assistance.

No new appropriations for Ukraine have been passed by Congress since the start of Trump’s second administration.

VANCE LEADING TRUMP’S ‘WAR ON FRAUD’ COULD BE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

Instead, Trump has permitted NATO allies and partners to purchase U.S. weapons for Ukraine through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List program.

As a result, Europe has now committed more money to Ukraine than the U.S., in spite of concerns that it may not be enough for Ukraine to win the war.