Roving Periscope: Russia-Ukraine conflict may trigger the Third World War, warns Trump
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to escalate into the Third World War, the media reported.
Speaking to the reporters at the White House, he said that at least 25,000 people were killed in the war in November alone and expressed deep frustration over the continued clashes.
“I’d like to see the killing stopped. At least 25,000 people died last month… things like this end up in the Third World War. I said that the other day. I said, ‘everybody keeps playing games like this, you’ll end up in a Third World War.’
“I would love to see it stop. And we’re working very hard,” he added.
The US has been pushing a peace agreement for a resolution between Russia and Ukraine through continuous engagement with both sides. In November, Washington disclosed all 28 points of its proposal, but the plan drew sharp criticism for being ‘overly favourable’ to Russia.
However, the revised approach presents a streamlined 20-point framework, accompanied by separate documents detailing security guarantees and Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
Trump also stressed the denuclearisation of weapons. “One of the things I talk to China about is the denuclearisation of weapons… I’ve spoken to China about that. I’ve spoken to Russia about that,” he said.
“Extremely frustrated”
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the US President is “extremely frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine over the slow progress toward ending the conflict which started in February 2022.
During a press briefing, Leavitt said, “The President is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war. He’s sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting. He doesn’t want any more talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end.”
Trump’s ‘peace deals’
Ever since India paused its Operation Sindoor in May 2025 at the request of a panicked Pakistan, Trump has been claiming credit for this ‘ceasefire.’ In fact, he has claimed—and increased the number every now and then—that he ‘ended’ at least four-five-six-seven-eight wars across the world since he returned to the White House for a second term in January this year.
He has been taking credit ad nauseam for such ceasefires and even ran a campaign for weeks to grab a Nobel Peace Prize this year—until it went to a Venezuelan leader who ‘dedicated’ the award to him!
His attempts to achieve peace in the Russia-Ukraine war have also not yielded any results.
In October, the Trump administration drafted a 20-point peace plan aimed at halting the Israel-Gaza conflict immediately. While a breakthrough was reached, ending two years of war, the ceasefire has struggled to hold. Al Jazeera recently reported more than 500 Israeli violations in two months, with at least 356 Palestinians killed since the agreement.
In the same month, Trump also helped bring the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia together to sign the ‘Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords’, which were aimed at ending border tensions between the two Southeast Asian neighbours. However, the ceasefire failed to hold, and the two nations are currently locked in a conflict, just weeks after their smiling PMs posed with Trump with the peace deal that he claimed he brokered.
On December 8, Thailand resumed a wave of airstrikes on Cambodia after a Thai soldier was killed and four others were injured in a Cambodian shelling. Amid the fighting, both countries are accusing each other of starting attacks along their disputed border.
Likewise, the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan is fragile.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, Ukraine’s General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Russia continues to move forward at a slow rate of just 1.5-4.5 km, at an enormous cost.
After its initial hubris and failures, Moscow’s plan now is to turn small tactical gains into large strategic ones by persuading the world — and in particular the men surrounding US President Donald Trump — that the only course left for Kyiv is to cede the victory that Russian troops have been unable to secure by force.
It is evident from the Kremlin’s statements of its war aims, as well as the recent 28-point Russian-US “peace” proposal, that any terms should leave Ukraine militarily weakened, providing the option to resume the invasion from a better position at a later date. Plus, the deal should be so humiliating as to turn Ukrainians against their government and the Western allies who let it happen.
Since January, Trump, eager to keep Russia in good humour, ceded the principle that Ukraine should never be able to join NATO, a key Russian demand; stopped almost all US financial and military aid to Ukraine; and, in March, suspended intelligence sharing and communications support long enough for Moscow to recapture Russian territory around Kursk.
Trump’s Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll warmed Ukraine in November that it must accept that 28-point deal, because Kyiv is losing hard on the battlefield and it could only get worse.
Past performance is no guarantee of the future. But at its current pace Russia would have to fight on for years to take what Putin wants gifted to him.
