Name: Historian says Trump is the barrier to the peace in Ukraine
Uploaded: 2025-05-27T00:15:06.875Z
Duration: 4 min 16 s
Description: Bestselling author and historian Timothy Snyder joins Paula Newton to discuss President Donald Trump’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and what freedom means in America

Bestselling author and historian Timothy Snyder joins Paula Newton to discuss President Donald Trump’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and what freedom means in America

Washington

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

Historian and author Timothy Snyder has criticised former President Donald Trump’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stating that Trump has not implemented any significant policy responses toward Russia. Snyder argues that U.S. inaction, particularly the lack of increased sanctions and military support for Ukraine, is a central barrier to ending the war.

Snyder also reflected on the concept of freedom in America, suggesting that freedom requires active engagement and risk-taking, rather than being a passive inheritance. He highlighted that, according to surveys, the U.S. ranks around 50th in terms of freedom, and emphasised the importance of self-reflection and action in preserving democratic values.

Historian says Trump is the barrier to the peace in Ukraine

Timothy Snyder is a renowned historian, author of the bestselling books on tyranny, and more recently on freedom. He is a strong advocate as well for Ukraine. Now he's warning that authoritarianism is on the rise even in the United States. And he joins us now live from Toronto. I want to welcome you to the program. And let's get firstly to what you just heard from Alexei there and the slight shift in Trump's tone. This is just a shift in tone towards Putin. What do you make of it? Is Trump capable, do you think, of standing up to Putin? I mean, these are your words, right? What are his views on tyranny and on freedom? Because right now he hasn't linked President Trump, either concept, to Ukraine. I think in general we have a tendency to over-report what Trump says. And the funny thing about that is that it gives him more power at home because we imagine he has powers he doesn't have. But it also allows us to overlook his failures abroad because people abroad don't have to take his words seriously, and they generally don't. This is the fifth or sixth or seventh time that Trump has said, oh, I don't like something Putin has done. But there has never been anything like a policy response. The U.S. is not, under Trump, addressing any policy instruments towards Russia. And as Mr. Gontarenko said, it's very simple. We could bring this war to a close by doing two things, serious sanctions against Russia – and Congress could do that, by the way, we don't talk about Trump the entire time – Congress could pass a law, and increasing air defense and other weapon supplies to Ukraine. If we did those two things, we could bring the war to a close. But so long as we're not doing those things, our inaction is the story, and the words are not the story. Mr. Trump thus far has failed to understand what war is. And you're right, he doesn't connect it to freedom or tyranny. He also, I mean, he basically doesn't understand why people fight wars. He doesn't understand why Ukrainians would defend themselves, because he wouldn't. And he doesn't understand why it is that Russia is trying to take territory. He just sees that it's one more transaction. Why can't Russians do what's rational? He doesn't understand that he himself or our Congress have to change the stakes if we want to end the war. We could do it. He's the barrier. Yeah, and interesting that you say that Congress could do it, because Speaker Mike Johnson would have to bring that to the floor. And given he certainly is an ally of President Trump, unlikely he would do that. I do want to move on to certainly many words that you have published in the last few years. You published the book on freedom just last year. And I know that that is before Donald Trump became president again. In it, you argue that Americans – and this is a controversial comment – that Americans are by no means among the freest people in the world. Can you reflect on what freedom in America meant when you wrote that and what it means now? We recall, again, it is Memorial Day here, and so many American young men and women go to war for freedom. Well, that gives you a first step towards a good answer as to what freedom is. Freedom is something that you're willing to take risks for. Freedom's not something that you inherit. You can't inherit freedom. Freedom has to be something that you care about yourself. Freedom isn't something that's just the absence. It's the presence of human values, human virtues, human actions. And so when we ask whether America is a free country, we can look at the surveys that I'm citing, which are carried out by Americans, by our own notion of what freedom is, in which we generally are about 50th place. But we can also ask ourselves, in this situation in which we now find ourselves, in which our own government is very obviously taking away our freedom, how are we talking about freedom ourselves? What are the things that we are doing? How are we organizing ourselves? What risks are we taking, comparable or not to the risk that American soldiers, or for that matter, Ukrainian soldiers now are taking? What are we doing? Because freedom is about caring about things, and it's about acting. It's not about talking about how wonderful you are, or how great your traditions are, or how you're automatically free. You do those things, and your freedom will be taken away. It's about self-reflection, it's about values, and it's about organizing.

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Ukraine Invasion