MICHAEL KIMMAGE is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability.

A concert in Italy featuring Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who has ties to Putin, is sparking a furor following protests by Alexei Navalny’s wife.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is afraid of the US, as heavy attacks have stopped since Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine,

“Putin will not negotiate as a loser,” one of his longtime associates tells TIME by phone from Moscow. “He knows that winners don’t get punished, and if he wins, all of this” — the sanctions, the tariffs — “will go away.”

Vladimir Putin is convinced his country is strong enough to secure total victory in Ukraine. But the Russian leader is forgetting two crucial things about the current geographic dynamic.

President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. will send Patriot air-defense missiles to Ukraine and threatened new tariffs on Russia. Will Vladimir Putin back down? What should Trump's next move be? And what does the future hold for Ukraine? Newsweek contributors Daniel R. DePetris and Dan Perry debate:

But Putin appears to be unfazed by these latest development and is refusing to kowtow to Trump and his demands. READ MORE: NATO considers retaliation against Russia as WW3 and plane crash fears soarREAD MORE: Vladimir Putin launches attack on Ukraine a day after Trump's '50 days' threat Instead the Kremlin has intensified its attacks on the White House incumbent,

It remains to be seen just how lasting and severe President Donald Trump’s turn against Vladimir Putin will be. Trump has criticized the Russian president in unprecedented terms in recent days and signaled he’ll send vital weapons to Ukraine.