{"id":147959,"date":"2025-07-17T14:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=147959"},"modified":"2025-08-29T18:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:03:04","slug":"ukraine-war-geopolitical-realignment-by-u-s-nato-puts-heat-on-russia-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/ukraine-war-geopolitical-realignment-by-u-s-nato-puts-heat-on-russia-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war: Geopolitical realignment by U.S.-NATO puts heat on Russia, China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Special to WorldTribune.com<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" By<\/em><\/span> John J. Metzler<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, July 17, 2025<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has had it with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin. Gone are the days where it appeared that the Russians were ready for a negotiated \u201cdeal\u201d or \u201cceasefire\u2019 in the bloody Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

Now Donald Trump has openly said that \u201cPutin has been bull**ing him\u201d all along about a much-anticipated ceasefire.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s frustration in trying to stop the bloodletting in Ukraine as well as Russia\u2019s escalation of the war has prompted the president to sarcastically warn, \u201cPutin talks nice but then bombs everybody in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

To confront Moscow\u2019s expanding air raids on Kyiv, the Trump Administration will send additional U.S. Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine in coordination with NATO. The European allies will pay for the American air defense ordinance being sent to beleaguered Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Congress is equally prepared to impose tough enhanced \u201cSledgehammer\u201d sanctions on Russia. Joint bipartisan Senate legislation co-sponsored by Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) would dramatically upgrade current economic sanctions on Russia and countries trading with it.<\/p>\n

On the House of Representatives side, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) agreed, \u201cI think sanctions are called for\u201d to \u201cbring an end to this unjust war in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi: ‘Beijing can\u2019t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China.’ \/ Video Image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine grinds on both on the ground and in the air; Moscow\u2019s infantry attacks continue to chip away at Ukrainian territory, while air raids using swarms of drones and\u00a0ballistic missiles shatter the night sky over Ukrainian cities and towns. Civilians are deliberately targeted in a morbid plan to break morale and to devastate the country through Moscow\u2019s spiderweb of Shahed drones and missile strikes.<\/p>\n

Significantly as summer moves on, the Ukraine stalemate faces three key variables:<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>, the new Trump Strategy. This is backed up by new NATO resolve both against Moscow\u2019s aggression in Ukraine and equally to support enhanced defense spending among the 32 members of the Atlantic Alliance. Most NATO members no longer question nor balk at Trump\u2019s longtime demands to boost their defense spending. So beyond Britain, the Baltics and Poland, major players like Germany shall step up spending levels to 5 percent of GDP. This was unimaginable even last year!<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, Widening North Korean support to Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a three-day visit to North Korea and gained ebullient promises of support from dictator Kim Jung-un for additional North Korean combat troops and engineers to support Russia\u2019s frontline units in Ukraine. Last year Pyongyang sent at least 12,000 troops, now they are expected to send 6,000 additional forces. Equally more than 12 million 152mm artillery shells have been provided to Moscow\u2019s arsenal.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, China\u2019s mercurial political and military role. Perhaps this poses the biggest question mark in the geopolitical equation. While Beijing hasn\u2019t been a direct participant in the conflict, the Chinese communists clearly profit from the ongoing war. Why? Precisely because it ties down both American power, depletes U.S. weapons supplies and draws focus away from China. Equally, because it weakens Russia too, a quiet unstated goal of Beijing\u2019s Marxist mandarins.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless in early 2022 just prior to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, Chinese leader Xi Jinping signed a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership with Moscow and since then political and economic ties have strengthened.<\/p>\n

Just last week China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, curiously told the European Union\u00a0Foreign Affairs Minister Kaja Kallas that \u201cBeijing can\u2019t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple diplomatic sources cite this following a four-hour meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas in Brussels which \u201cfeatured tough but respectful exchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Just last week China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, curiously told the European Union Foreign Affairs Minister Kaja Kallas that ‘Beijing can\u2019t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China.’<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

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A European Union statement on Ukraine, cites Kaja Kallas \u201chighlighted the serious threat Chinese companies’ support for Russia\u2019s illegal war poses to European security.\u201d She urged China to immediately cease all material support that sustains Russia\u2019s military industrial complex and called on China to back a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese companies are Moscow\u2019s lifeline to sustain its war against Ukraine,\u201d Kallas added.<\/p>\n

We are witnessing a re-alignment of the geopolitical stars confronting Russia\u2019s aggression in Ukraine; The Trump Administration, the U.S. Congress, and key NATO allies all working in close coordination to support Ukraine\u2019s freedom and sovereignty.<\/p>\n

In a key White House meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, President Trump underscored he was \u201cvery unhappy\u201d with Russia reflecting Moscow\u2019s moves in foot dragging over a Ukraine peace settlement.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump moreover threatened secondary tariffs on Russia of 100% if \u201cwe don’t have a deal within 50 days\u201d.<\/p>\n

On such actions may rest Ukraine\u2019s hinge of fate.<\/p>\n

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). <\/em>[See pre-2011 Archives<\/a>]
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, July 17, 2025 President Donald Trump has had it with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin. Gone are the days where it appeared that the Russians were ready for a negotiated \u201cdeal\u201d or \u201cceasefire\u2019 in the bloody Ukraine war. Now Donald Trump has openly said that \u201cPutin has been bull**ing him\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":149263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,54,55,3,59,118,9,89,10,91,60],"tags":[163,164],"class_list":["post-147959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-columnists","category-commentary","category-exclusives","category-john-metzler","category-nato","category-rest-of-the-best","category-russia","category-top-stories","category-ukraine","category-united-nations-mideast","tag-china","tag-ukraine-war-geopolitical-realignment-by-u-s-nato-puts-heat-on-russia","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149264,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147959\/revisions\/149264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}