Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin is about to get its first big test on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Top US and Ukrainian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, their first direct talks since the US president paused military aid to Kyiv and intelligence-sharing after his White House blow-up with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
European officials say they’ve been told Trump wants Kyiv to commit to a quick ceasefire as a condition for concluding a US-Ukraine deal to exploit the country’s natural resources.
Zelenskiy will be in Riyadh on Monday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who hosted the first US-Russia talks last month. Ukrainian acceptance of the US demands would require Trump to get President Putin to commit to a ceasefire.
So far, Putin has shown no interest in doing that.
Trump has positioned himself as a mediator seeking to push both sides to the negotiating table, to the consternation of nervy Europeans who point out that Putin started the war. He has demanded plenty of concessions from Kyiv and practically none from Moscow.
Zelenskiy said yesterday a ceasefire in the sky that stops missile and drone attacks and on the Black Sea could be “initial steps” toward a settlement. That mirrors plans advanced by the UK and France for a one-month truce that might be followed by deployment of European troops as peacekeepers.
Russia flatly rejects any European forces in Ukraine. Overnight, Ukraine said Russian missiles and drones targeted energy infrastructure nationwide.
Putin may accept an air-and-sea truce while intensifying land attacks in eastern Ukraine to seize more territory. He told a group of war widows yesterday that “we will not give up what is ours.”
If Trump fails to persuade Putin to make even that limited concession, however, his strategy to end the war may founder before it really starts. — Tony Halpin