LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on his first stop in a Mideast swing, said he would consider joining ceasefire talks in Istanbul if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to meet directly with 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump wants both parties to sign a ceasefire deal and agree to a peace settlement to end the Ukraine War. Trump has worked feverishly on getting a settlement with both parties wrangling over minor details while more young Ukrainians and Russia die daily. Trump made ending the Ukraine War a top priority in his 2024 campaign and since taking office. Obstacles thrown in his war have largely been from Zelensky whose unrealistic demands have made peace more difficult. Putin, too, has his own requirements, including having Zelensky agree to remain independent, not part of the NATO alliance.
Trump said he’d consider joining talks in Istanbul if it would facilitate a deal between Putin and Zelensky. Zelensky has played games in the peace process using the European Union as a foil to Trump’s peace plan that largely accepts Putin’s conditions for peace, including annexing parts of Ukraine already seized during over three years of war. Zelensky and Trump had their run-in on the war Feb. 28 in the Oval Office, with Zelensky going off on Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance over accepting conditions for peace. Zelensky can’t fathom the fact that Trump seeks normal diplomatic relations with his archenemy, Vladimir Putin. Trump wants to restorned normal diplomatic relations after former President Joe Biden ended decades of diplomacy, détente, arms control and global cooperation with Russia. Getting the EU involved was a big mistake for Zelensky.
Members of the EU haven’t caught up to Trump’s reconciliation with the Kremlin, no longer following Biden’s proxy war strategy with Russia. Before Biden, generations of U.S. presidents since Harry Truman worked hard on developing pragmatic, cooperative relations with Russia, trying work as partners on global relations. Biden trashed decades of diplomacy to back Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. Biden refused to take responsibility for causing the Ukraine War, arming Ukraine to the teeth with U.S. lethal weapons over Kremlin objections. Biden refused to talk with Putin about new security arrangements for Ukraine, provoking Putin into invading Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022. Trump is right that if he were president, Putin would have never invaded because Trump would not have armed Ukraine over Putin’s objections. Now Trump works day-and-night to end the war.
Trump has many meetings in Riyadh, United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week but would finish up business and fly to Istanbul if there were chance to signing ceasefire and peace deal. Zelensky keeps taunting Putin saying that if he doesn’t show up personally in Istanbul, he’s not serious about peace. But everyone knows that Putin has many capable emissaries including 75-year-old, right-hand-man Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov or Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. But Putin’s presence at the meeting with Zelensky would go a long way in driving Trump to attend the meeting. Trump is needed to buffer the current high-charge atmosphere between Putin and Zelensky. If Zelensky blew up at Trump, imagine what he could do with Putin? Trump’s presence in Istanbul would be a stabilizing influence.
Zelensky has played off Trump with the EU, turning peace talks into a farce, where the EU has made unrealistic demands for Ukraine. Only recently, EU officials insisted that Putin remove all his forces from Ukraine. After fighting over three years of war, Russia has dug into Ukraine at great cost to the Russian Federation. So, when it comes to conditions to end the war, no one knows more than Trump Putin’s basic requirements for peace. Zelensky still wants Putin charged in The Hague for war crimes and for the Kremlin to pay war reparations to Ukraine. Entering talks in Istanbul feels like neutral territory for Putin, where he can present the Russian position without recriminations from the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been overly harsh in advocating for Ukraine.
Trump to the rescue in Istanbul if Putin decides to meet Zelensky for direct talks. Zelensky and the EU take the exact wrong approach trying to coerce Putin into attending the meeting. Whether Putin can arrange to meet in Istanbul or not, he’s expressed an openness to ending the Ukraine War if Zelensky meets him halfway. Putin wants to deal with what he calls “root causes” of the Ukraine War, including the U.S. and NATO arming Ukraine with lethal weapons to battle the Kremlin. Putin wants the U.S. and EU to stop funneling arms to Ukraine. Putin also wants assurance that Ukraine would not become part of the NATO alliance, something EU countries have been reluctant to do. If Putin decides to go to Istanbul to meet Zelensky, expect Trump to reroute Air Force One to mediate their talks and nail down a ceasefire and peace deal to end the Ukraine War.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
