# Hill: Trump does not have tremendous leverage over either of the parties in Ukraine conflict

President Trump is turning up the heat on Russian President Vladimir Putin in his first days in power, seeking to pressure Russia’s leader to come to the negotiating table for a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

He has qualified his threats with flattery, saying that he loves the Russian people and has “always had a very good relationship with President Putin.”

The posts are an opening salvo in Trump’s efforts to show that his “peace through strength” policy can end Europe’s biggest land war in almost a century.

The reality is that Trump does not have — the U.S. in general does not have — tremendous leverage over either of the parties in this conflict,