Donald Trump believes that negotiations are a test of manhood, and that there can be only one winner. In his world, there is no win-win; there is only I win, you lose. How do you win? Mostly by creating and using leverage as ruthlessly as possible.
With that in mind, you would think he would be talking up Ukraine, and threatening to escalate American assistance, if he wants to make a deal with Putin. He is, of course, doing no such thing. What does that tell us?
Trump is a Putin fanboy, and he hates Ukraine. That’s what’s motivating him here. He doesn’t want to make a deal on Ukraine, and extract concessions from Putin in return; he just wants to prove his worth to the killer in the Kremlin.