In some cases, the strategy is not even clear to outside observers, as seen for instance in the about-turn on intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Prikk told ETV show "Välisilm": "The truth will be clear later."

"Right now, we still cannot say. What we are publicly seeing is, unfortunately, Donald Trump employing rather harsh methods in his business-like manner, and I would say, as an attempt to shake up a situation that he describes as deadlocked."

The ambassador also said that Trump was out of step on Ukraine with the bulk of the American public.

"If we compare support for Russia and Ukraine — how Americans perceive both Ukraine and Russia in terms of being positive actors — there is a huge gap," he continued.

"More than 50 percent of U.S. citizens view Ukraine as a 'positive actor.' But less than 5 percent — probably about 3 percent — view Russia in that way," he went on, noting that this cannot be disregarded.

"The president must certainly take these considerations into account," he added.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials are to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on ending the ongoing war, even as relations between the two countries have been anything but cordial in recent weeks.

While Trump may characterize this step as moving towards the end game in the war, many Americans still find the president's approach incomprehensible, as a protest outside the White House showed – which the ambassador visited and in which at least one Estonian flag was on display amid the Ukrainian blue-and-yellows, and U.S. stars and stripes.

One protester, Martin, said: "Most people think that the best way in a negotiation is to be strong, but he's making Ukraine weak, so it looks like he may be picking the wrong side, and most Americans just can't understand that."

"If we can't help Ukraine … we shouldn't really be taken seriously. They shouldn't take our word seriously if we can't help the people who are on our side," Martin went on.

Another, Gale, found: "I think he's betrayed the Ukrainian people and I am deeply upset about it, I don't understand why he thinks Russia would serve us better. It makes no sense to me, and he's responsible for the deaths of Ukrainian people; that is happening right now."

A third protester, Leia, said: "It's just absolutely bonkers what he's doing, and it's a complete waste of the billions of dollars of aid U.S. taxpayers have already invested in this war. It's very disappointing."

"As a student I'm very concerned about what is happening; I'm seeing a repeat of the past, and we've seen this movie before, it didn't end well," Leia continued.

On Friday, however, Trump took a starker stance toward Russia, writing on social media that he was considering imposing additional sanctions on Russia.

But does one social media post a policy make?

On this, the ambassador said: "We also know that in the background, the Americans and Russians have met. We can be relatively certain that ways of putting pressure on Russia were also discussed."

Then on Sunday evening, Trump stated that he would be restoring U.S. intelligence sharing with Kyiv, having previously put it on pause.

Trump did not specify if or when the U.S. might also restore military aid, also halted at present.

He said: "Let's see what happens with the whole Russia-Ukraine thing: I think you're going to have eventually, and maybe not in the distant future, you're going to have some pretty good results."

Despite the rowing back of the intel policy, over the past month and a half, U.S. President Donald Trump has radically changed the U.S.' overall approach to Ukraine and is, at least on the surface, seemingly treating Russia more as an ally than an adversary.

Matters came to a head with the Oval Office confrontation on the last day of February – a few minutes at the end of a 50-minute to-camera talk, which had been mostly fairly jovial up to that point.

After those scenes, Trump announced that he had suspended the provision of intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.

"Välisilm" noted that when a journalist more recently asked Trump whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the U.S. aid to Ukraine pause, the U.S. president's response was: "I actually think he's doing what anybody else would do. I think he wants to get it stopped and settled, and I think he's hitting them harder than he's been hitting them; and I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now."

In any case, the war in Ukraine has had to take a back seat behind issues such as immigration policy, federal budget cuts, and the economy, since Trump entered office for his second term in January.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has also said that relations between the two countries can still be improved despite the apparently still-born minerals deal.

Waltz said: "The Ukrainians had a great opportunity to bind our economies together through that mineral deal; unfortunately, that didn't go so well, but we think we're going to get things back on track."

U.S. and Ukrainian representatives meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today, with commentators expecting progress.

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