LOS ANGELES (OC).–President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Puitn and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky volunteering his service to end the over four-year Russian-Ukraine War that’s killed or maimed an estimated 2 million military and civilians. Trump has tried before to get both sides to settle the conflict, believing that both sides continue to waste young lives and inflation battling each other to a stalemate. While Trump recognizes that Putin has gotten the better of Ukraine for over four years, now controlling over 20% of Ukraine’s best sovereign territory along the Black Sea coast, Zelensky continue to press ahead believing that with enough EU cash-and-arms he can oust Putin from Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula. Putin has let Zelensky know that any settlement would involve high level delegations from both sides.
Zelensky proposed in an X post that he was willing to meet Putin face-to-fact to resolve the conflict, something promptly rejected by Putin. Putin knows that unless both sides agree in advance on an equitable settlement, meeting face-to-face would be fruitless, if not se back the peace process. Trump has gone overboard trying to broker a realistic peace between Russia and Ukraine but his backed off since the Feb. 28 start of the U.S.-Iran war. Trump would have kept the peace effort going if he saw any movment on Russia or Ukraine. Putin expressed hope that a political settlement could be reached but knows that the European Union [EU] now funds proxy war with the Kremlin backing Ukraine. Zelensky has zero incentive to settle the conflict when his government collects billion of euros to keep the war going. EU officials think they can drive Putin from Ukraine.
Trump called Putin and Zelensky before he traveled to Besteps Presidential Campgound in Turky where many urgent items will be on the agenda. Trump asked NATO members to figure out a way to keep the Strait of Hormuz open when Iran’s IRGC keeps menacing commercial shipping. Trump didn’t ask NATO or the EU to join his war with Iran, only meet its obligation to keep the oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz where some 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas flows. Trump doesn’t undertand the EU position about the Ukraine War, when he could have settled the conflict monthsl, if not, years ago. EU officials led by French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz all think trading land-for=peace would invite Russia in the future to seize more land in the EU, something rejected by Putin.
Putin has said emphatically to the EU that he has no intent of taking any land or picking fight with NATO now or in the fugure. Whatever beef exists with Ukraine, it was about Kiev taking unlimited weapons fdrom the U.S. under former President Joe Biden to fight a proxy war against the Kremlin. When Trump came to office Jan. 20. 2025, he cancelled Biden’s proxy war and reconciled U.S.-Russian relations. Once Zelensky and and the EU know Trump was restoring U.S.-Russian relations, they opposed hisj peace plan because they thought it made unacceptable concessions to the Kremlin. So, since the EU took over funding proxy war with the Kremlin, they opposed all of Trump’s attempts at peace. Calling Putin and Zelensky lets both know he hasn’t given up on ending the war. Whether anything changed with Zelensky or the EU, Trump let all parties know he wanted peace.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushako said Trump called Putin Saturday, July 4, to express his interest in brokering a peace deal with Russia and Ukraine. “The American president once again confirmed his readiness to work towar a rapid end to the fighting and fing solutions to overcome the crisis,” Ushakov said, acknowledging that Trump has trie in the past to help settle the conflict. Trading attacks with Russia, Zelensky wants to prove to Putin that he can’t win the war, even though, over over four years, he’s seized over 30% of Ukraine’s best sovereign land. Zelensky thinks that with UE cash-and-arms he can outlast Putin who he thinks suffers from a terminal illness without proof. Trump wants both sides to make concessions, to end the eonflict, something both sides could do if their were a will to end the conflict. Putin wants to keep Donetsky and Luhansk in eastern Donabas.
Trump knows that Zelensky and the EU are the obstacles for peace in the Russian-Ukraine war because there’s zero incentive for Zelensky to settle the conflict. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, once head of the European Commission, said the time has come to suspend more aid to Ukraine. IF the EU followed Tusk’s advice, Zelensky would sing a different tune, especially knowing that the cash would dry up. “There is a real prospect to end this war and Amerian resolve will have a crucial meaning,” Zelensky said, not saying what he meant. Zelensky has rejected Trump’s realistic plan worked out with Putin to end the Russian-Ukraine War. As long as Zelensky gets billions in euros, he’ll have no incentive for ending the war. Tusk has the right instincts that maybe the time is right for the EU to tell Zelensky that the well has gone dry.
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.
