San Francisco Frontiers - Trump faces fresh questions over ties to 'humanitarian' Putin

Trump has cast his dealings with Putin as part of a mega-deal that has secured the release of American detainee Stephen Hubbard -- and which Trump says will end Russia's war on Ukraine.

At the same time, he has repeatedly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and called for him to be replaced.

"I do things that nobody else can do," Trump told an AFP reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday when asked about Hubbard.

But for Trump's critics, it is the latest example of his willingness to sell Ukraine down the river, especially as he seeks a deal before difficult US midterm elections in November.

His ties to Putin have long been under scrutiny.

Trump still complains of what he calls the "Russia hoax" following an investigation in his first term into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow.

Last week, Trump announced a huge agreement under which he said Russia would release diesel to ease prices sent soaring by the Iran war -- and temporarily eased sanctions on Moscow.

Trump insisted on his Truth Social network that there was "no 'swap' necessary" for Hubbard's release.

Yet in another post minutes later, he admitted that if he had not paused the sanctions targeting Russia, "those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt."

- 'WTF, Steve?' -

The US president has also appeared to give diplomatic rewards to Putin -- who masterminded the Ukraine war and has pushed his maximalist goals for more than four years of grinding conflict.

In Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff told Putin: "You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian -- you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that."

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a frequent Trump critic in recent months, reacted with astonishment.

"WTF, Steve? Look up the definition of 'humanitarian'," he said in a post on X.

Trump earlier this week confirmed that he was ready to hold a three-way summit with the Russian leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping during which Ukraine could be discussed.

Moscow then announced Wednesday it would restart three-way talks with Kyiv and Washington.

Yet previous rounds of talks, including a Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August 2025, have produced no breakthroughs.

Ukraine insists it must be included in any talks. But Trump's response was to again blame Zelensky -- whom he berated in the Oval Office in February 2025 -- for not accepting a deal.

"Since Donald Trump has come into office, we have seen some gravitational pull towards the arguments of the Russian president," Liana Fix of the Council for Foreign Relations told AFP.

Many of the voices that once pulled Trump back towards Ukraine are also now silent, said Fix. Staunchly pro-Kyiv US senator Lindsey Graham died earlier this year, and European leaders are dealing with their own problems at home.

- 'Exploiting Trump's nervousness' -

Putin is "exploiting Trump's nervousness ahead of the midterm elections, and he's playing that very well," added Fix.

Trump has been desperately seeking ways to bring down oil prices, as voters angered by the cost of living look set to punish his Republican Party in the November 3 midterms.

Fears have also mounted that Trump is looking to punish Ukraine. He has blamed Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries -- and not his own war with Iran -- for high oil prices.

Kyiv complained that Washington had briefly halted the sending of intelligence to help counter Russia's missile attacks and reduced speeds in the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system.

"Sometimes I wonder if folks here in the US understand, truly understand, that Kyiv is fighting an existential war against the Russian aggressor," Gian Gentile, a retired US Army colonel and former director of the military history program at West Point, told AFP.

Ukraine has also complained of hold-ups in the supply of vital interceptor missiles.

"There's no question that these actions are intended to hurt Ukraine," Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine colonel and senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.

M.Powell--SFF