LOS ANGELES.–German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, 69, said he thinks that 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky and 79-yer-old President Donald Trump in the next two weeks. Merz has been part of the European Union’s get tough on Putin group, recommending new stiff sanctions if he doesn’t agree to an immediate ceasefire. But there’s something off about Merz who said, in a Aug. 18 White House meeting with Trump, Zelensky and his EU colleagues, that he thought he could still get a ceasefire agreement from Putin. Maybe Merz statements were lost in translation but clearly Trump said he gave up on the idea of a ceasefire because it did nothing to actually move the peace process forward. Trump said he and Putin agreed that a ceasefire was temporary fix that didn’t ;lead to a peace agreeement.
Merz hasn’t been listening to Russia’s 75-year-old Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said today that before Putin would meet with Zelensky he wants to see Russian and Ukrainian work-groups meet methodically in Istanbul or some other neutral foreign capital to work out all the details of a mutually agreed upon peace deal before the leaders meet to ratify the recommendations. “We don’t know whether the Russian president will have the courage to attend such a summit. Therefore, persuasion is needed,” Merz said, insulting Putin by saying he needed guts to meet with Zelensky. Putin would chew Zelensky up and spit him out, so the implied intimidation factor doesn’t exist. When it comes to “persuasion,” Merz thinks slapping Putin with more economic sanctions would push him into a ceasefire. Merz clearly hasn’t paid attention to recent events.
Merz quotes Trump talking with Putin during the Aug. 18 White House meeting about settting up a time with Trump and Zelensky. “The American president spoke with the Russian president on the phone and agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president with the next two weeks,” Merz told reporters. But so much has happened since the Aug. 18 White House meeting that indicates that no meeting with Putin will take place unless the two negotiating teams can’t work out an acceptable peace deal. Putin has said he wants to retain Donesk, Luhansk and the Crimean Peninsula. When it comes to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia there’s room for negotiation. Putin doesn’t want an arm-and-a-leg, he wants what he’s won over the last three-and-a-half-years of bloody hell, with both sides losing mass numbers of casualties.
Zelensky has been talking publicly about not surrendering any territory to the Russian Federation in any peace talks, claiming it violated the Ukrainian constitution. Well, if the Constitution needs to be amended to stop a bloody, destructive war, then that’s what Zelensky needs to do. Zelensky can’t continue pretending that he’s going to vanquish the Russian Federation, no matter how much he wants to. Former President Joe Biden made a colossal blunder taking on the Russian Federation, claiming their military was near collapse when the war started Feb. 24, 2022. Biden and Zelensky found out the hard way that defeating the Russian Federation is no easy task. Putin viewed the Ukraine War as an existential crisis for the Russian Federation. Once Trump came to office, Putin changed his tune, with Trump seeking to normalize U.S.-Russian relations.
Trump walks a tightrope with moving the peace process along after hosting Putin in Alaska Aug. 15 and Zelensky and the EU Aug. 18. Trump knows that the EU’s punitive approach with Putin doesn’t yield results, pushing him to avoid peace talks. Trump thinks there’s bigger fish to fry in U.S. foreign policy and national security than the Ukraine War. He wants to reverse the Biden policy of treating the Kremlin as the enemy. Trump gets along well with Putin but knows that if things aren’t done his way, he’s not interested in playing ball. When it comes to ending the Ukraine War, Putin wants a methodical process with Russian and Ukrainian teams working together in private to negotiate and permanent peace plan. Putin sees no value to he and Zelensky getting in a room to discuss the terms-and-conditions for ending the war. Merz has not come up to speed that Trump’s call with Putin emphasized the need to move the peace process forward to get a deal.
Getting to the next stage of work on a peace deal requires both sides to negotiate in good faith a peace deal that works for both countries. Putin isn’t going to settle the conflict on Zelensky’s terms but only through both delegations working together to find a solution. Putin offered Zelensky in March 2022 to end the conflict if he recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, accepting Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Zelensky said no and went to war with the Kremlin with U.S. arms-and-cash. Three-and-a-half-years of war has resulted in massive carnage and destruction to Ukraine, with Zelensky losing 25% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory on the Black Sea coast. Trump told Zelensky Feb. 28 in the Oval Office to cut his losses. Zelensky threw a fit but now has to make some tough choiees if he wants to end the bloody, destructive war.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlneColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
