America Has Turned on Ukraine. Here’s Why.

America Turns on Ukraine: What the Heck is Going On? (Author: Morris M.) To call it Ukraine’s week from hell is - if anything - an understatement. Not sinc

Simon Whistler February 25, 2026

America Turns on Ukraine: What the Heck is Going On? (Author: Morris M.) To call it Ukraine’s week from hell is - if anything - an understatement. Not since the first Russian missiles slammed into Kyiv in late-February of 2022 has the nation’s future seemed darker.

Key Takeaways

America Turns on Ukraine: What the Heck is Going On? ( .) To call it Ukraine’s week from hell is - if anything - an understatement.
It began on Friday, 28th February with an Oval Office blowup that has already become infamous.
Yet it wasn’t Moscow driving these developments. Nor was it events on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s armed forces are beginning to reverse months of Russian gains around Toretsk and Pokrovsk.
For most of us watching this war, the whiplash between America’s treatment of Ukraine prior to January 20th and afterwards has been total.
But first, let’s just quickly recap the full extent of the calamity now befalling Ukraine, and how each of Washington’s recent moves badly undercuts the country’s war effort.

Key Developments

It began on Friday, 28th February with an Oval Office blowup that has already become infamous. It then continued over days of fallout and misery, each news cycle bringing more reasons to despair than before. The suspension of military aid. The switching off of the US intelligence pipeline. The bombshell story that Trump operatives were clandestinely meeting with Ukrainian opposition politicians, trying to plot a way to remove Zelensky from power. By the time the following Friday rolled around - March 7th - the list of disasters befalling Kyiv was starting to look like Vladimir Putin’s Christmas wish list, complete with moves to ease sanctions on Russia. While his popularity had been falling prior to the blowup in the Oval Office, a recent survey by polling company Survation put Zelensky’s support at 44 percent, a full twenty points ahead of his nearest rival. Unfortunately, there was more to Kyiv’s bad week than just the removal of aid and JD Vance manufacturing a blow-up in the Oval Office.

Strategic Implications

Yet it wasn’t Moscow driving these developments. Nor was it events on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s armed forces are beginning to reverse months of Russian gains around Toretsk and Pokrovsk. No. The driving force of Ukraine’s week from hell was a former ally. An ally that now seems to have turned on Kyiv. An ally known as the United States. Beijing’s EU envoy Lu Shaye has recently begun making pro-Europe noises, telling the South China Morning Post (quote): “When you look at how the Trump administration has implemented a brazen and domineering policy towards Europe, treating its allies in this way, honestly, from a European perspective, it’s quite appalling.” As the Deputy Head of Eastern Europe & Eurasia Division at the SWP Berlin research institute drily noted on X: “Reverse-reverse Nixon is when China peels Europe away from Washington as a result of US-Russian rapprochement.” The broader idea, though - that American focus on Ukraine is an unwanted distraction from China - is one we should take seriously.

Risk and Uncertainty

For most of us watching this war, the whiplash between America’s treatment of Ukraine prior to January 20th and afterwards has been total. From leading the condemnation of Putin’s colonial war, Washington has switched to voting against UN resolutions condemning Russia’s aggression - a stance that saw the US position itself alongside longtime enemies such as North Korea and Belarus. And the big question hanging over it all is: why? Why is Washington suddenly treating Ukraine not just as somebody else’s problem… but as an enemy? As the Telegraph pointed out, regarding one of the draft texts of the minerals agreement Trump tried to push Kyiv into signing (quote): “If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty (that ended World War One).” That question of “why” is one we’re going to take seriously in this video. To see if there isn’t a good faith or realpolitik answer that could explain the reversal.

Outlook

But first, let’s just quickly recap the full extent of the calamity now befalling Ukraine, and how each of Washington’s recent moves badly undercuts the country’s war effort. Starting with the cutoff of military aid. In the three years since the Kremlin launched its unprovoked invasion, American military support for Kyiv has been critical. As the Kiel Institute’s support tracker shows, the US is by far the largest single donor of lethal aid - handing over the equivalent of 64.1 billion euros. Second place Germany, by contrast, has donated a mere 12.6 billion. This is the crux of the Trumpian complaints that Europe should do more to support Kyiv, instead of leaving America to carry the can. As the magazine writes: “In 2021, the last full year before the full-blown invasion of Ukraine, the United States absorbed a mere 3.6 percent of Russia’s exports and supplied just 5.9 percent of its imports.

FAQ

What is the central development in America Has Turned on Ukraine. Here’s Why.?

America Turns on Ukraine: What the Heck is Going On? (Author: Morris M.) To call it Ukraine’s week from hell is - if anything - an understatement.

What remains uncertain right now?

For most of us watching this war, the whiplash between America’s treatment of Ukraine prior to January 20th and afterwards has been total. As the Telegraph pointed out, regarding one of the draft texts of the minerals agreement Trump tried to push Kyiv into signing (quote): “If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty (that ended World War One).” That question of “why” is one we’re going to take seriously in this video.

Why does this matter strategically?

Yet it wasn’t Moscow driving these developments. Nor was it events on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s armed forces are beginning to reverse months of Russian gains around Toretsk and Pokrovsk.

What indicators should observers monitor next?

But first, let’s just quickly recap the full extent of the calamity now befalling Ukraine, and how each of Washington’s recent moves badly undercuts the country’s war effort.