Donald Trump’s posture toward Vladimir Putin has remained one of the most persistent riddles of his political career. A decade after Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, Trump continues to speak of Putin as a negotiating partner even as Moscow expands missile production, draws fresh military support from North Korea and continues its assault on Ukraine.
No public investigation has established that Trump is a Russian agent. But the recurring gap between his treatment of Moscow and that of Ukraine keeps the political question alive: why has a U.S. president so often appeared more willing to pressure Kyiv than the Kremlin? With Ukraine now striking Russian oil and logistics targets deep inside Russia while Moscow intensifies attacks on Ukrainian cities, the contrast is again impossible to ignore.
Ukraine has expanded long-range drone attacks against Russian bombers, oil refineries, air defences and logistics hubs, seeking to raise the economic and military cost of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Russian missiles, drones and glide bombs struck Ukrainian cities, while Kyiv said North Korean ballistic missiles were used in the assault and warned that more North Korean troops may be deployed.
Hundreds of millions are enduring exceptional heat as drought lowers rivers and reservoirs, curbs nuclear generation and shipping, and threatens agriculture across much of Europe.
The World Meteorological Organization says Europe’s fifth heatwave of the summer reflects a warmer climate interacting with persistent high pressure, unusually warm seas and parched soils.
Washington and Tehran are trading new demands over a settlement as disruption around the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea shipping keeps pressure on energy markets and regional security.
Russia released Robert Gilman after the White House and State Department pressed for his return to the United States for medical treatment.
A Syrian court has sentenced the ousted former president to death in absentia over killings and torture, another milestone in the country’s break with the Assad era.
Researchers say a fresh spillover from animals, rather than continuation of an earlier chain, likely triggered the outbreak spanning parts of Congo and Uganda.
Kyiv’s long-range drone campaign is increasingly carrying the war into Russia itself.
Moscow intensifies missile and drone attacks while drawing on North Korean weapons.
Deepening drought disrupts water supplies, farming, river transport and electricity generation.
The U.N. says extreme heat is becoming more frequent, intense and prolonged.
The Hormuz dispute remains unresolved as Washington and Tehran trade demands.
Russia frees former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman after a Putin pardon.
The question raised by Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin is not whether suspicion itself proves secret allegiance; it does not. The more consequential issue is why the suspicion has endured for a decade. Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, and Trump’s political rise has repeatedly been accompanied by unusual warmth toward Putin, scepticism toward U.S. intelligence assessments, hostility toward NATO allies and pressure on Ukraine. Yet Trump has also criticized Putin at times, supplied or permitted weapons for Kyiv and backed measures that have hurt Russian interests. That contradictory record is precisely why the issue remains unsettled in public debate. In 2026, the contrast has sharpened again. Ukraine, once told by Trump that it lacked leverage, is now hitting Russian bombers, refineries and logistics facilities far from the front. Russia, meanwhile, is expanding missile production and receiving additional military support from North Korea while continuing deadly attacks on Ukrainian cities. Against that backdrop, every new sign of presidential patience with Moscow is measured against years of history. There is no public evidence establishing that Trump takes direction from the Kremlin. But in democratic politics, perception matters, and a president who repeatedly appears more willing to chastise an invaded ally than the power that invaded it will inevitably revive the oldest question surrounding his foreign policy: what explains his enduring accommodation of Vladimir Putin?