By Lateef Adegbite
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, may have given Donald Trump, the North American President of the United States (US), the ammunition to go into direct confrontation with the Russian Federation to force Vladimir Putin to back out from Ukraine.
Putin, the Russian President, who had been described by Zelenskyy as being afraid of the American-manufactured Tomahawks, which can strike deep into Moscow, was said to have outlined three conditions to end the Ukraine war.
One of the conditions set by the Russian President to end the over three-year war in Ukraine was the demand for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region and other regions that have been captured by Russia in the ongoing war.
Another condition, that Putin had said Zelenskyy must be ready to keep , is that will never drag Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,NATO, a security organization comprising the 32 member countries of the European Union EU, the US, and the United Kingdom ,UK. Note that the Ukrainian war had resulted in the led to the withdrawal of Sergio Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, and Viktor Orban of Hungary from NATO and further contribution into the EU security Fund.
The Russian leader was also said to have demanded that Ukraine must not think of owning or plan to build a nuclear plant. He may have used the opportunity presented by the proposed peace deal to end the Ukraine war to demand that the EU, US, and UK lift the sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the present.
Zelenskyy, the 47-year-old Ukrainian leader, was said to have rejected the conditions outlined by Putin to end the war, describing them as a “trap.” He stated clearly that Ukraine under his leadership would never trade off its regions, insisting that neither Trump nor Putin would impact on the country’s sovereignty. He was emphatic that no inch of Ukrainian territory would be ceded to Russia, notwithstanding that Russia currently controls 20% of the Eastern European country — territories Putin claims will never be returned to Ukraine, as they have become part of Russian’s land.
Given the US’s indirect involvement in the Ukraine war through funding, supply of weapons, and political cover for Zelenskyy from the outset, which may have emboldened the Ukrainian leader to step up attacks on Russia, his request for more weapons like the Tomahawk from the US to force Putin to back down was a big test for Trump.
Aware that Putin would not bow to pressure from the EU, to soften his demands, or negotiate to end the war that has claimed millions of lives, the US President may have resolved to enter into the Ukraine war to force Putin to shift ground and end the war.
Addressing NATO members in their recent meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Trump was said to have given his words to send American troops to Ukraine to fight alongside the country’s military personnel against Russia and armoured tanks as well. He did not stop there.
Given that the American President could not release the 50 Tomahawks promised to Ukraine in his October 17, 2025, meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington, DC, despite his assurance that they would given to Ukraine to be used against Russia, which Zelenskyy had said would be used to strike at Russia military targets, as Trump had told NATO countries, that the US troops would operate the advanced military weapon and not left in the hands of Ukraine troops who do not have skills to operate it.
Trump may be waiting for Putin’s response at their planned meeting in Hungary to end the Ukraine war before finally deciding finally whether to drag the US into the war in Ukraine and deploy the Tomahawk weapon to force the Russian President to agree to negotiate and end the war in order to save lives and protect both public and private properties.
While the US is still foot-dragging in entering the Ukraine war to give Putin time to reconsider and end the conflict with Ukraine willingly, Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister — whose country’s economy is wobbling like that of France under President Emmanuel Macron — was said to have declared war on Russia.
The British PM may have been encouraged to enter the Ukraine war ahead of the US because the country, according to diplomatic sources, is no longer seen as a reliable ally. It was therefore not surprising why Starmer, despite the country’s economic challenges and the menace posed by Russia in various ways, had no option but to declare war on Russia.
Some of the ways Russia had been accused of menacing the UK include poisonings, assassinations, sabotage operations, cyber-attacks, and influence operations. The British PM may have led the pack among NATO countries to declare war on Russia because Trump still wants to maintain a personal relationship with Putin “to do arms control agreements and also business that will probably enrich their entourages further.”
With the British declaration of war on Russia and the US’s planned entry into the Ukraine war, along with the deployment of the Tomahawk missile, described by Trump as powerful and dangerous. Putin may be encouraged to use the Oreshnik hypersonic missiles, which military experts say could travel ten times the speed of sound, to defend against NATO countries.
Until the British Prime Minister declared war on Russia, Putin had warned that he would not hesitate to use the Oreshnik missiles against Ukraine’s Western allies, who allowed Zelenskyy to use the Flamengo, Ukraine’s long-range missile to strike deep inside Russia recently.
Sergei Karakayev, an Army General and Head of Russia’s Strategic Forces, had told those who care to listen that the country has no reason to worry about the American-manufactured Tomahawk missile because the Oreshnik could carry nuclear or conventional warheads and has the range to reach both European and American targets.
Officials of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate may have realized that Putin may likely give the nod to the Strategic Forces to use the Oreshnik missile. They have sent a message to their Western allies to bear in mind that the Russian hypersonic missile which can fly between 5,000 km and 5,500 km, has almost the same speed as Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a weapon that was banned under a Soviet-era treaty which Washington and Moscow abandoned in 2019. They are now making adequate preparations to counter it on the battlefield.
The missile carries six warheads, each containing six additional ammunitions. There are indications that the six ammunitions released by the six warheads are apparently unarmed but possess high kinetic energy that could deliver a destructive force equivalent to tons of explosives on targets.
Describing the Oreshnik as powerful and dangerous like the US-manufactured Tomahawk, Putin said it is capable of destroying underground bunkers three, four, or even five floors down, meaning there is no hiding place for Western troops fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
There are fears in both official and unofficial circles that the Ukraine war may snowball into World War III due to conflicting global interests.
