Russia has repeatedly painted modern Ukraine as a Nazi state, in a crass distortion of history. Putin had already seized Ukraine's Crimean peninsula eight years earlier, after a revolution that ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian president and replaced him with a more pro-Western government.

President Trump is looking for more than just a mineral deal with Ukraine. Trump wants Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to change his attitude toward peace talks and to have a willingness to make concessions to Russia,

Russian socialists and anti-war activists have condemned the so-called “peace deal” for Ukraine being negotiated between Russia and the United States, warning it will bring new wars. They say plans to carve up Ukraine between two powers would only “untie the hands of all imperialists”.