After a hectic conversation with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance before the press community, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy departed the White House without inscribing a pledged minerals agreement and with the future of talks to conclude Russia’s war against his country in uncertainty. Zelenskyy “can come back when he is ready for Peace,” Trump wrote.
In the aftermath, officeholders in Moscow will be “delighted” with these outcomes. Kremlin state media called the session a “public flagellation” and a “dressing down.” According to experts, this all brings Russia closer to what it desires most of all: the Kremlin and the US negotiating regarding Ukraine’s future over the heads of the Ukrainians, in a twenty-first century arrangement of the Yalta agreement at the end of World War II.
Additionally, it creates Putin’s purpose of the United States easing sanctions on Russia more likely. This is extremely disheartening, because with the front line in eastern Ukraine mostly static, the critical variable in the fight is the Russian economy, which specialists say is essentially on life support and steered for a crisis in the next year. That would deter Moscow’s capacity to indict its war of aggression.
Moscow gets from each US-Ukraine argument. As long as the West bargains or conflicts with itself, Putin becomes more complacent in his demands. Trump attempts to play Putin’s game.
After the Trump arrangement, Zelenskyy quickly communicated with European heads including French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. There is discussion of additional European summitry in the forthcoming days. Europe has been excluded from potential dialogues because Trump doesn’t notice them as capable to meaningfully shaping a solution.
It’s time to truly experience what Europe offers. Can they rise to the challenge? In a meaningful way, supply Ukraine with the long-term security assurances it so desperately requires, and potentially be willing to put boots on the ground to assist secure a lasting peace.
There are big queries for US at play, too. Taking a step back. Today’s blow-up felt like a more serious rupture, not just with Kyiv, but with the US ‘free world’ approach from Truman via Reagan.
US president loves wrenches and turns, and there could be more wrenches yet in this story. In complement to publicly voicing his gratitude for US support Zelenskyy could make obvious that Ukraine stands by Trump’s actions to perform “a ceasefire in place and security for Ukraine,” he suggests, while Trump and his crew could demonstrate that they “pushed Zelenskyy not to advantage Putin but to advance a settlement, including security for Ukraine.”
