Trump's talks with Putin hit a wall; Ukraine peace elusive

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin talked by phone on Monday for about two hours. Initial reports following the White House and Kremlin dialogue sounded optimistic.

Donald Trump announced that "negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately." Referring to efforts to end the war, he said at the White House, "I believe we have a good chance to achieve this. I think Putin wants it."

In turn, Putin said after his conversation with Donald Trump that Russia is ready to work on a memorandum with Ukraine, which would include a ceasefire. According to Putin, the most effective path to peace and "fair compromises" needs to be found. However, he did not specify what they should look like.

By Monday evening, in a phone conversation with European heads of state and government, there was a sense that the US president was not prepared to press the Kremlin leader to negotiate more forcefully. In their opinion, Putin has not given up on his demands since the outbreak of the war in 2022, including eliminating what he perceives as the fundamental causes of the crisis. The Kremlin interprets this as, among other things, the abandonment of NATO ambitions, demilitarization, and "denazification" of Ukraine.

According to global media, the message from both leaders is one thing; the agreements are another.

According to the American news network CNN, Putin seeks peace, but only on terms that would be unacceptable for Ukraine as a sovereign nation. In their assessment, the recent conversation between the parties merely underscored the deep divisions and highlighted how distant a peaceful resolution remains.

Similar comments appeared on Tuesday in the German press. "Trump is roughly taking Putin's stance, who does not want to stop fighting but always offers negotiations," ironizes "Der Spiegel".

Meanwhile, the weekly "Die Zeit" emphasizes that anyone who had hoped that Donald Trump would put pressure on Russia is disappointed. "Negotiations regarding Ukraine are at the same stage as they were a few months ago", is the conclusion.

"I see no breakthrough after Trump’s conversation with Putin. It seems the Russian leader is still outmaneuvering everyone, mainly the American president. He pretends to be ready for talks, but nothing really comes out of these conversations. After all, talks were supposed to happen in Istanbul with Putin, Trump, and Zelensky, and they didn’t occur," says WP prof. Tomasz Płudowski, an American studies expert at the Academy of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw.

In his opinion, Trump still focuses on the commercial aspect of talks with Putin.

"This has been his approach from the beginning. He considers what he could gain from his involvement in ending the war. This was evident with Ukraine, as he quickly picked up on Volodymyr Zelensky's suggestion about utilizing rare earth resources. So, if he does this concerning a country defending itself against an aggressor, he will be even more inclined to do business with Russia," the Americanist tells us.

In his view, Trump is increasingly crafting a narrative that he is not responsible for the war.

"All this in case the negotiations don’t end successfully. And as we see, much indicates that outcome. He tries to blame the Democrats for the war. However, the responsibility falls on him, especially since he promised to end the war," assesses prof. Tomasz Płudowski.

Meanwhile, Crimean political scientist Nedim Useinov notes that the outcomes after the phone conversation between the two leaders sound like the same tune heard before.

"Putin keeps playing a game with Trump. He tells him he is 'interested in peace, but...' and constantly presents a long list of conditions. Unfortunately, Trump is not a specialist on Russia. He doesn’t understand the nature of the Kremlin’s demands. Trump assumes that both sides aim to strike a deal. But Putin is not willing to strike a deal. Apparently, his advisors are afraid to make him realize the truth, which the American president has not yet matured to emotionally," says Nedim Useinov, an expert from the think tank The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF).

In his opinion, there is a lot of improvisation in Trump's approach, faith in his intuition, and brilliant tactics.

"The problem is not knowing much about Russia and not allowing experienced advisors to speak up, which keeps him a bit on Putin’s leash. The Russian leader says, 'I want peace' and plays on Trump’s vanity. Then quickly adds, 'I won’t talk to Zelensky, only with you. Go, appeal to the Ukrainian president’s reason to bend. And then you, on his behalf, will sit with me at the table'," comments Nedim Useinov.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the phone conversation, Putin told Trump that there is no point in talking to the Ukrainian president at all. That they should agree on terms between themselves, and Zelensky has to accept them," believes the political scientist from Crimea.

After the conversation with Putin, Trump also talked to Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I asked him not to make any decisions regarding Ukraine without Ukraine being involved," Zelensky said later. He added that Ukraine will not withdraw its troops from its own territories and will not accept Russian ultimatums.

Zelensky mentioned that indeed a memorandum with Russia is possible, which would lead to an agreement ending the war. "We will wait for the Russian version of this memorandum. Our position is clear: we want to end the war, but I do not know the true position of the Russians. Perhaps they themselves do not know what they want," added Zelensky.

According to the Russian news agency Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that there is no time frame for developing the memorandum. "There are no deadlines and there cannot be any," said Peskov. He added that everyone wants to make progress as quickly as possible, but "the devil is in the details." Peskov also stated that the place for new contacts with Kyiv has not been determined.