LOS ANGELES (OC).–Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spent a few hours hashing over new ideas to restart peace talks on Ukraine. President Donald Trump has grown more frustrated with the lack of progress, saying recently Russian President Vladimir Putin was very nice but didn’t seem to take Trump’s peace overtures seriously. Lavrov knows that Trump has done many things since coming into office to restore normal diplomatic relations with Russia, spending considerable time brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Trump was dismayed over Putin’s aggressive attacks on Ukraine at a time when he was pushing for a 30-day ceasefire. Trump called his talks with Putin “bullshit,” noting that they’re always pleasant but haven’t got down to brass tacks for a ceasefire and peace talks.
Lavrov is Putin most trusted diplomat having worked closely with each other over the last 20 years. So, when it comes to having Putin’s ear, Lavrov has Putin’s attention, knows that Trump has worked hard toward bringing peace to Ukraine. Trump thought that if he called for peace with Putin, why would he hit Ukraine so hard in recent weeks? “A substantive and frank exchange of views took place on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine,” Lavrov said about his meeting with Rubio. Rubio said the Lavrov floated something “new,” but didn’t elaborate on exactly what the news idea is. “It’s not a not a new approach. It’s a new idea or a new concept that I’ll take back to the president [Putin] to discuss,” Lavrov said. Lavrov said it was not something that “automatically leads to peace, but it could potentially open the door to a path,” Rubio said.
Kremlin officials said that peace talks were not stalling, saying it was looking for “signals” from Ukraine that would attend another round of Istanbul peace talks. While the war has raged on, it doesn’t mean that Moscow isn’t interested in talks, knowing that the last talks produced a productive prisoner exchange of 1,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. Talks at the moment seem stuck over Putin’s “memorandum” that he disclosed at the June 2 talks. Putin wasn’t happy when Zelensky called the memorandum “blackmail,” not taking the Russian proposal seriously. Zelensky and his EU partners want Putin to pull all Russian troops out of Ukraine before holding any real peace talks. Putin sees that as deliberate defiance, unrealistic to finding a peace formula that works or both sides. Putin has annexed 25% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory since the war started Feb. 24, 2024.
Rubio and Lavrov discussed the Ukraine War in an amicable fashion, explaining that Russia wanted peace talks to work just like the U.S. Bringing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into the fold has been difficult, largely because he doesn’t trust Trump to negotiate a fair peace settlement for Ukraine. Zelensky wanted Putin charged with war crimes and forced to pay Kiev reparations for the war that’s cause untold damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure and economy. While Rubio and Lavrov discussed peace in Kuala Lumpur, Zelensky was in Rome with his EU backers like French President Emannuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. All have taken a hard line against Putin for refusing a 30-day unconditional ceasefire and direct peace talks with Zelensky. Putin and Zelensky are not ready to talk.
Putin’s message to Zelensky is simple: If you want war, you’ll get war. Without formalizing a ceasefire and peace process, Zelensky finds himself under daily bombardment from the Kremlin. Trump hoped after talking with Putin that he’d let up in the war but it was not part of Putin’s plan. Putin wants Zelensky to know that if he wants peace he needs to come to the table in good faith, not calling his memorandum “blackmail.” Any combatant in a war would want to collect the spoils or at least negotiate for them at the conclusion of conflict. Putin expects Zelensky to surrender Kherson, Zaporizhizhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. So far, Zelensky has refused to trade land-for-peace, a prerequisite in any peace talks. Trump wasn’t trying to get Ukraine a bad deal he was trying to find a realistic way to end the war, satisfying both sides in the process.
EU officials have gone in the exact wrong direction with Putin, threatening more sanctions and taking only Zelensky’s side. While it’s true that Putin started the war, it’s not true that the war, as Biden liked to say, was “unprovoked and unjustified.” Putin thought the U.S. threatened Russian national security supplying Ukraine with unlimited cash-and-weapons right on the Russian border. Putin asked Biden for months before the invasion to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine. When Biden ignored Putin, Putin announced he would implement a “special military operation” designed to demilitarize Ukraine for a growing threat to the Russian Federation. When it comes to peace, hitting Putin with more sanctions, accomplishes nothing other than pushing peace out of reach. EU officials should tell Zelensky that he needs to let Trump negotiate a peace deal.
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.
