LOS ANGELES.–After speaking with 72-year-old President Donald Trump May 19 for two hours, 78-year-old President Donald Trump said Putin takes the peace process seriously. Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin didn’t take the peace process seriously because he didn’t meet him in Istanbul May 16. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiation toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said. “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” Trump said, not really knowing whether the two sides were even close to the same ballpark. Trump said he didn’t discuss a timeframe with Zelensky. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said that no timeframe was mentioned. “No, they didn’t discuss that,” although Trump told reporters and others: “I said, ‘When are we going to end this bloodshed, this bloodbath, and I do believe he wants to end it,” Trump said.
Putin has a problem with Zelensky trying to pressure him in going to Istanbul when the preliminary work has not been done by Ukraine and Russia. Putin sent a delegation to Istanbul to negotiate a prisoner swap and to figure out the parameters of any ceasefire and peace talks. Defying the European Union, Trump said he would not join new sanctions designed to induce Putin into meeting with Zelensky. Putin said he’s working on a “memorandum of possible future peace agreement” with Ukraine. “The U.S. president expressed his position on the cessation of hostilities, ceasefire, and from my end, I have emphasized that Russia stands for peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” reported Russian state-run TASS news service. “We just need to outline the most effective routes of moving towards peace. Russia wants to work on the “root cause” to war,” TASS said.
Trump wants to move the peace process along at the earliest possible time, telling Putin and Zelensky to start the negotiating process. But with Zelensky demanding that Putin get all his troops out of Ukraine, there’s little room for compromise. Putin has no intent of surrendering his spoils of war obtained over the last three years, including Kherson, Zaporizhizia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin’s memorandum to start a negotiating with Zelensy requires him to accept that he must trade land for peace. If Zelensky doesn’t accept that premise, then the war will go on until Zelensky changes his mind. Zelensky has told the Ukrainian people nightly since the Feb. 24, 2022 start that he’s been winning the war. If Zelensky accepts a peace deal, how’s he going to explain the loss of sovereign territory?
Putin’s Ukraine envoy in Istanbul Vladimir Medinsky said he was satisfied with progress made during the nearly two-hour ceasefire talks. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha said there was a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kiev on a path to peace. He said that Russia was focused on the past not on the future. “To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the absurd demands as three years ago,” said Sybiha. Sybiha refers to Putin’s offer to make Crimea sovereign Russian territory and to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhank. Five years later, Zelensky deals with the loss of Kherson and Zaporizhizia, both left out of any past negotiation. But the more Zelensky continues the war, the more sovereign territory he loses to Russia.
Zelensky has come to reality that he’s faced with funding his own war with the Kremlin, no longer counting on the U.S. or EU to foot the bill. How long could Zelensky last battling the Kremlin in the future without U.S. or EU support? Zelensky thinks he can play hardball with Putin, demanding that he pull is forces out of Ukrainian territory. But three years of war has been all about seizing more Ukrainian territory. On Aug. 8, 2024, Zelensky had a brainstorm with Pentagon consultation to seize actual Russian territory to be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations. Zelensky gambled, thinking Putin would take the bait and redeploy his forces to the Kursk border region inside Russia. Putin has been looking to retake the territory and finally managed to oust remaining Ukrainian troops. Another gamble for Zelensky that eventually backfired.
Trump shows an eternal optimism about ending the Ukraine War, despite all the signs that Zelensky and the EU want unrealistic demands from Putin. Zelensky and the EU only recently said if Putin is really serious about peace, he needs to pull out all his troops from Ukraine. Well, since we know that’s not happening, what is the EU prepared to do knowing that the funding now falls on them? EU officials have backed Zelensky’s claims that he’s getting a raw deal from Trump and Putin. But ending a war comes with real sacrifices, something he’s not prepared to make. Zelensky wants an unconditional 30-day ceasefire but knows that he will have to meet Putin’s conditions for moving forward. Trump has no problem with Putin’s current demands, trying to get Zelensky to face reality hasn’t been easy. Zelensky wants to pretend he wasn’t at war with the Kremlin.
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.
