“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” President Trump told reporters on Sunday afternoon, just before boarding Air Force One for a short trip from his golf club in New Jersey to Washington. Hours later, he posted about the Russian leader, saying, “He has gone absolutely CRAZY.”

“我不知道普京到底怎么了，”特朗普总统周日下午对记者说，当时他登上“空军一号”，准备从他在新泽西州的高尔夫俱乐部启程前往华盛顿。几个小时后，他又在社交媒体上发文谈及这位俄罗斯领导人，“他已经彻底疯了。”

Mr. Trump’s rare criticism of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia came after a weekend of the largest bombardment of Ukrainian cities over the past three years, mostly aimed at civilian targets, from residential areas in Kyiv to university dormitories. The Russian attacks also happened only days after Mr. Trump had what he described publicly as an “excellent” two-hour phone call with Mr. Putin that Mr. Trump promised would immediately lead to direct peace negotiations.

在特朗普罕见地批评俄罗斯总统普京之前的一个周末，俄军对乌克兰城市发动过去三年来最大规模的轰炸，其中大部分针对平民目标，从基辅的居民区到大学宿舍都未能幸免。而就在空袭发生几天前，特朗普刚与普京进行了被他公开形容为“极好”的两小时通话，特朗普承诺那次通话后将立即开始直接的和平谈判。

Mr. Trump has long said he enjoys a “good relationship” with Mr. Putin, and it was not the first time he expressed shock that the Russian president was unleashing attacks on Ukrainian civilians. A month ago Mr. Trump wrote “Vladimir, STOP” as a barrage of missiles and drones hit Ukraine, including crowded playgrounds. But Mr. Trump has never linked the attacks with his own decision, reaffirmed last week, to refuse to join the Europeans in new financial sanctions on Russia, or to offer new arms and help to the Ukrainians.

虽长期标榜与普京“关系良好”，这也不是特朗普第一次对俄罗斯总统袭击乌克兰平民表示震惊。一个月前，在导弹和无人机袭击乌克兰，包括人满为患的游乐场时，特朗普曾写道：“弗拉基米尔，住手！”但他从未将这些袭击与他自己的决定联系起来，上周他再次重申，不会继续与欧洲一道对俄罗斯实施新的金融制裁，也不会向乌克兰人提供新的武器或援助。

The result is a strategic void in which Mr. Trump complains about Russia’s continued killing but so far has been unwilling to make Mr. Putin pay even a modest price.

由此形成的战略真空令人费解：特朗普一边谴责俄方持续杀戮，一边却至今不愿让普京付出哪怕最轻微的代价。

The pattern is a familiar one, several outside experts and former government officials said. Mr. Trump signals he is pulling back from a conflict he often describes as Europe’s war, then expresses shock that Mr. Putin responds with a familiar list of demands that amount to a Ukrainian surrender, followed by accelerating attacks. Mr. Trump episodically insists he is “absolutely” considering sanctions, including on Sunday.

多名外部专家和前政府官员指出，这都是老套路。先是特朗普表示他要退出这场他所谓“欧洲的战争”，然后普京提出一系列等同于让乌克兰投降的要求，并开始加强攻势，特朗普随即表示震惊。特朗普时不时会说他“绝对”在考虑制裁俄罗斯，这周日就是如此。

在周日晚的袭击中，乌军向俄军无人机开火。

Yet each time when he is forced to make a decision about joining Europe in new economic penalties, he has pulled back.

但每次当他必须决定是否与欧洲一起实施新的经济制裁时，他都选择退缩。

“Russia said no cease-fire and Trump is increasingly washing his hands of it,” Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm, wrote on Monday. The result is that “support for Ukraine continues to recede in importance for the Americans,” he added. Mr. Bremmer predicted that “what comes next is more fighting — expanded Russian attacks across Ukraine, fewer restraints on Ukraine targeting inside Russia.”

“俄罗斯拒绝停火，特朗普则越来越想置身事外，”地缘政治咨询公司欧亚集团总裁伊恩·布雷默周一写道。他补充道，这导致“美国人越来越不在意对乌克兰的支持”。布雷默预测，“接下来将是更多的战斗——俄罗斯扩大对乌克兰全境的攻击，而乌军对俄境内目标的打击限制将减少。”

The latest cycle of this odd interaction between the American and Russian leaders happened just last week. Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his desire for a summit meeting soon with Mr. Putin, declared that only he and the Russian leader had the power and influence to end the war. Yet by the time they were done talking in their call last week, Mr. Trump had changed his position, saying it was now up to Ukraine and Russia to end the war in direct negotiations.

美俄领导人这种诡异的互动模式上周再度上演：特朗普毫不掩饰渴望与普京会晤，他曾宣称唯有他与俄总统有能力结束战争；然而在上周的通话结束后，他却改口称应由俄乌通过直接谈判解决冲突。

In a subsequent conversation with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Finland, along with the European Commission, Mr. Trump had yet another view: Mr. Putin thought he was winning the war and would press his advantage. According to several officials briefed on the conversation, Mr. Trump made it clear he had no intention on putting pressure, much less harsh economic sanctions, on Russia.

在随后与德国、法国、意大利、芬兰及欧盟委员会领导人的通话中，特朗普又提出另一种观点：普京自认为胜券在握，将继续扩大优势。据多名听取了对话简报的官员透露，特朗普明确表示无意向俄罗斯施压，更不用说实施严厉经济制裁了。

“He said, essentially, ‘I’m out,’” said one of the officials, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to describe the conversation.

“他其实就是在说‘我不管了’，”一位因未被授权谈论此事而要求匿名的官员表示。

Mr. Trump, the official said, clearly meant that he was disengaging from the conflict in an echo of Vice President JD Vance’s public statement that “we’re more than open to walking away.” Mr. Trump also made clear that he was pulling back from a commitment he made just a few weeks earlier to the leaders of France, Germany and Britain to join an economic crackdown on Russia if it refused a cease-fire.

该官员称，特朗普的意思显然是要从这场冲突中抽身——这与副总统万斯公开宣称的“我们完全可以退出”如出一辙。特朗普还明确表示，他正在放弃几周前向法、德、英领导人作出的承诺：若俄罗斯拒绝停火，美国将加入对俄国的经济打击。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基本月上旬在阿尔巴尼亚与波兰、法国及英国领导人会晤。

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has not wanted to repeat the Oval Office blowup with Mr. Trump in February, has been careful not to criticize Mr. Trump, as he has veered between pleas to Mr. Putin to stop and refusals to pressure Russia. But in his own social media post on Monday, Mr. Zelensky pressed for more economic sanctions, writing that “only a feeling of total impunity can allow Russia to launch such strikes.”

乌克兰总统泽连斯基不想重蹈今年2月与特朗普在椭圆形办公室的争执，一直小心避免公开批评特朗普，尽管后者在呼吁普京停火与拒绝向俄罗斯施压之间反复摇摆。但在周一的社交媒体贴文中，泽连斯基再次呼吁实施更多经济制裁，他写道：“俄罗斯会发动这样的袭击，只能是因为它觉得自己有恃无恐。”

Mr. Trump himself has clearly hoped to get beyond the conflict, and just last week was musing about the possibilities for a normalization of relations with Moscow. “Russia wants to do large scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘blood bath’ is over, and I agree,” he wrote after talking with Mr. Putin.

特朗普本人显然希望能摆脱这场冲突，就在上周，他还在思考与莫斯科关系正常化的可能性。“俄罗斯希望在这场灾难性的‘血腥屠杀’结束后与美国开展大规模贸易，我同意，”他在与普京交谈后写道。

Missing from Mr. Trump’s zigzags is any explanation of why he has been unable to use his relationship with Mr. Putin to persuade him to halt the violence, even for a 30-day cease-fire. When he was running for president, Mr. Trump often argued that Mr. Putin ignored Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Barack Obama during their presidencies because he didn’t “respect” them. Things would be different when he got into office, Mr. Trump said, arguing that he would end the war in “24 hours.” (He has since said the comment was sarcastic.)

在特朗普反复无常的表态中，他始终没有解释为何他无法利用与普京的关系说服对方停止暴力，哪怕是实现30天的停火。竞选总统时，特朗普经常声称普京在拜登和奥巴马执政期间无视他们，因为他“不尊重”他们。他当时表示，自己上任后情况将不同，并宣称能在“24小时内”结束战争（他后来称该言论是在反讽）。

On Sunday Mr. Trump's tone was different. “I’m not happy with what Putin is doing. He’s killing a lot of people,” he said. “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

周日，特朗普的语气有所不同。“我对普京的所作所为感到不满。他在屠杀大量平民，”他说，“我不知道普京到底怎么了。我认识他很久了，一直相处不错，但他现在向城市发射火箭弹，杀人，我一点也不喜欢这样。”

Later he wrote that Mr. Putin’s ambitions were to retake all of Ukraine, contradicting what his chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff, said two months ago in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

随后他写道，普京企图吞并整个乌克兰——这与他的首席谈判代表史蒂夫·维特科夫两月前接受塔克·卡尔森采访时所言截然相反。

“Why would they want to absorb Ukraine?” Mr. Witkoff asked Mr. Carlson in late March. “For what purpose, exactly? They don’t need to absorb Ukraine.”

“他们为什么要吞并乌克兰？”维特科夫3月底问卡尔森，“到底出于什么目的？他们不需要吞并乌克兰。”

2018年，特朗普与俄罗斯总统普京在芬兰赫尔辛基举行会晤。他曾多次吹嘘自己与俄罗斯领导人的交情与默契。

But on Sunday Mr. Trump wrote of Mr. Putin: “If he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

但在周日，特朗普在谈到普京时写道：“若他一意孤行，将导致俄罗斯的崩溃！”

Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, dismissed Mr. Trump’s statements about the Russian leader. He termed them an “emotional reaction.”

普京的发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫驳斥了特朗普关于这位俄罗斯领导人的言论。他称之为一种“情绪化的反应”。