LOS ANGELES.–Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff would meet for a fifth time with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something that hopefully will defuse tensions over the Ukraine War. Trump asked Putin in phone call to pause the Ukraine War so both sides can find common ground on an eventual peace deal. Trump got frustrated with the slow pace of progress watching the Russian bombardment on Ukraine continue unabated. Trump had hoped Putin would go along with a 30-day ceasefire plan to give both sides a way to find an off-ramp for the more than three-year-old war. Trump has had a closer relationship with Putin than Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky who rejected Trump’s peace process with Putin. Zelensky ran to the European Union hoping to get a better deal in a final settlement.
Witkoff should help clear the air buying Putin more time for Trump’s growing impatience over a deal. What Trump asked Putin to do was pause the war so the terms of a peace deal could be worked out. Zelensky has been pessimistic in public, often accusing Putin of not taking the peace process seriously. But in getting the ceasefire, Trump would exert maximum pressure on Zelensky and EU to compromise on an eventual peace deal. Zelensky has taken an unrealistic position that whatever land he’s lost in the over three-year war, he would want it returned to Ukraine. Putin wants at least five regions of Ukraine under Russian occupation, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. Crimea was seized by Putin March 1, 2014 after a bloodless pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed Ukraine government of Viktor Yanukovych.
Sending Witkoff to Putin helps explain Trump’s position on getting a temporary, 30-day ceasefire to start working with the EU and Zelensky to get a final settlement. Zelensky hoped he could get away with getting all his lost sovereign land back but must face the ugly reality of ceding land to the Kremlin. Zelensky gambled Feb. 24, 2022 when he opted to go to war with the Kremlin, knowing Russia’s superior military. Former President Joe Bide and Zelensky shared a common misconception that the Russian army was near collapse. Zelensky found out the hard way what grinding, trench warfare would be like with the Russian army. He thought if he got enough arms-and-cash from the U.S. he could prevail against Trump. But Zelensky was dead wrong, making the most foolish decisions when he could have negotiated an end to the Ukraine War shortly after it started.
Biden went overboard with the backing of Democrat and Republican war hawks in Congress, believing they could defeat the Russian Federation. Biden actually said March 20, 2022 that the aim of the Ukraine War was to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. Biden’s view was echoed by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin April 26, 2022 that the U.S. was trying to degrade the Russian military. Putin looked on the war differently, seeing it as an existential treat to the Russian Federation. Biden trashed decades of diplomacy, détente, arms control and global cooperation with the Kremlin. U.S. and Russia ended global cooperation and because mortal enemies. Trump has done everything possible to restore normal U.S.-Russian relations. Witkoff’s return to the Kremlin was designed to reaffirm Trump’s commitment to peace.
Trump’s message to Putin is simple through his 68-year-old peace envoy: Pause the war, stop the bloodshed. Putin thinks Trump has ulterior motives in mind but actually really wants to see the killing on both sides of the war to stop. “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed,” Trump responded to the press when asked if he had a message. Trump wants to end the war so he can get back to global cooperation with Russia, especially in the area of arms control. “Russia is very attentive to the top of nuclear non-proliferation. And we believe that everyone should be very cautious with nuclear rhetoric,” Peskov said, conveying to Russia and the U.S. to tone down the rhetoric. Ukraine still thinks it can get the U.S. and EU to coerce Putin into giving him his sovereign land back. Trump has no intent to finish a one-way negotiation, expecting Zelensky to compromise for peace.
Trump has found Zelensky unreliable as a peace partner, rejecting the U.S. role in brokering a lasting peace. Zelensky has refused so far to cede land-for-peace, the only formula needed to end the conflict. Telling the Ukrainian people that Ukraine was winning the war has hidden the fact that Zelensky has lost some 25% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory along the Black Sea coast. Ukrainians think that Zelensky, with U.S. and EU help, was well on his way to defeating the Kremlin. Putin continues to seize more land along the over 600 mile battlefront. When Witkoff meets with Putin either Wednesday or Thursday, he’ll ask Putin to only pause the air war, not the ongoing ground offensive. Ending the air war would accomplish Trump’s mission of sparing civilians lives while the terms of a deal can be worked out. Putin may very well compromise on pausing the air 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.
