LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump has been venting his frustration in public against 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin for not going along with 30-day ceasefire agreement, something he won’t sign on to without a “memorandum” on the basic conditions for any peace talks.  Trump said over last weekend the Putin had gone “crazy” hitting Ukraine with the biggest drone and missile attacks since the Feb. 24, 2022 start of the Ukraine War.  Trump spoke with Putin last week and both agreed that Russia would work with the Ukrainian delegation to initiate ceasefire and peace talks.  Trump was blindsided after his two-hour phone call that Putin would go the opposite direction and hit Ukraine with such fury. Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky offered Putin’s attacks as proof that he’s not serious about ceasefire talks urging the EU to slap more sanctions on the Kremlin.

            Trump has resisted the idea of hitting Moscow with more economic sanctions at a time when he’s trying to get both parties to the peace table.  Trump has hit a major roadblock trying to lock-down a ceasefire and peace talks.  He knows that Putin won’t agree to Zelensky’s terms for any settlement that includes a demand that he remove all his forces from Ukraine.  Zelensky has European Union leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer all backing more sanctions, but, more recently, ending any range restrictions where Zelensky can strike deep inside the Russian Federation.  Zelensky traveled to Berlin today to ask Merz to provide German-made Taurus long-range missiles to strike Russian military bases in the country.  Putin has said that lifting range-restrictions would be an act of war.

            Most of the U.S. and foreign press say Putin’s demands for peace are too “maximalist,” without questioning Zelensky and the EU’s demands to have Putin pull his troops out of Ukrainian soil.  Zelensky and his backers in the EU have their own demands for Putin, something the Russian leader rejects.  Putin wants Ukraine to deal with the root causes of the conflict, insisting that Ukraine eventually join NATO.  Putin finds any decision to grant NATO membership to Ukraine would kill any ceasefire or peace deal.  Putin watched Finland join NATO in 2023, with Sweden in 2024, completely contradicting Western promises to not encroach on Russian territory.  So, when it comes to ceasefire and peace talks, Putin wants assurances that Ukraine would remain neutral for the foreseeable future.  Zelensky rejects the idea of giving Putin any guarantees.

            NATO refuses to say that Ukraine would be blackballed from membership, simply because Putin demands it. Yet Zelensky and the EU know that if they really want a ceasefire and peace they’re going to have to negotiate an acceptable settlement. Trump has been reluctant to join any EU efforts to slap Moscow with more sanctions over not agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire deal.  Putin wants the details of any settlement to be worked out in advance, prompting him to send a delegation to Istanbul.  While the meeting only lasted two hours, it was able to complete a two-thousand-man prisoner swap. Putin wants Zelensky and his EU partners to know he’s prepared to keep the war going indefinitely if basic conditions are not met for a ceasefire and peace deal.  Putin wants Zelensky to cede territory taken over three years of war with the Kiev government, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and, of course the Crimean Peninsula.

            Zelensky’s war with the Kremlin was about preserving his power in Kiev but quickly morphed into demands to reclaim Crimean lost in a bloodless coup March 1, 2024, after pro-Western forces toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych.  Once Yanukovych was ousted, Putin had no choice other than protecting his Black Sea naval base in Crimea.  No Western official or media source acknowledge that the Feb. 22, 2014 coup prompted Putin’s annexation of Crimea.  Zelensky wants all of Crimea returned along with all the other sovereign territory Putin seized over three years of war.  Putin wants Ukrainian forces removed from the annexed territories in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.  Zelensky refuses at this point to cede any territory to Russia for a ceasefire and peace deal. He insists on Putin getting out of Ukraine.

            Ceasefire and peace talks are now stalled with Russia and Ukraine, all over what both must give up to get a ceasefire and peace deal. Zelensky and his EU backers want no part of ceding any territory in any settlement to the Kremlin.  Zelensky and the EU want Putin to voluntarily get out of Ukraine.  EU officials think that be coercing Putin with threats of more sanctions and lifting range restrictions on long-range missiles, Putin will eventually give in to Zelensky’s ceasefire demands. Zelensky has no evidence that Putin is willing to abandon all the sovereign Ukrainian territory he picked up over four years of war.  Zelensky looks content to continue the war as long as the EU foots the bill.  No one in the EU or NATO acknowledges that when former President Joe Biden kept arming Ukraine before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, he provoked Putin to take defensive actions.

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.