world’s attention. During a summit of world leaders held in Munich in February, President Petro Poroshenko used his time on stage to paint Russia as an “evil” occupier and to appeal for support from the U.S. and Europe.

But the seats of the hall in front of him had mostly emptied out before he took the podium. Poroshenko held up a flag of the European Union, which had once flown, he said, atop one of Ukraine’s front-line positions. “Everything the Russian world touches turns to ruin and decay,” he told a thin crowd of reporters and diplomatic staff.

The next day, when the President invited TIME for a brief chat in his suite at the conference venue, he looked exhausted after two days of meetings with U.S. and European officials,were outraged,” he recalls. The leaders of the U.S., U.K., France and Germany also devoted a great deal of time to those negotiations, and Bill Clinton, who was then the U.S. President, hosted the summit in Dayton, Ohio, which finally brought peace to Bosnia in 1995.

Today the American role in Ukraine feels very different. In his public remarks, Trump has avoided criticizing Putin for ordering his troops into Ukraine. Instead he has blamed the conflict on his predecessor, Barack Obama, while suggesting that the issue should be set aside in the interest of better relations with Russia.

As an initial step, Trump has called for Russia to be admitted back into the G7 club of industrialised nations, whose leaders kicked Russia out precisely because of its attacks against Ukraine.