(Bloomberg)-Eleven days ago, European leaders took heart when President Donald Trump called for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened new sanctions against Russia. A telephone call with Vladimir Putin on Monday revealed that these hopes were moved.
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After two hours to speak with Putin, Trump said on social networks that Ukraine and Russia “would immediately begin negotiations” to a cease-fire-but perhaps without the United States. There was no threat of sanctions, no request for a time line and no pressure on the Russian chief.
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Trump followed Putin’s call by reaching out to European leaders, but several governments already broadcast their disappointment. After months not to get closer to Putin from peace, they fear that Trump will withdraw his efforts to end the war, leaving Ukraine and his allies by themselves.
A European official, who asked not to be identified to discuss private conversations, said the leaders fear that Trump will disengage from diplomatic effort. Another said that Trump had clearly indicated that he did not want to impose more sanctions at this stage and withdrew from his own cease-fire proposal. The manager added that the managers of kyiv and elsewhere in Europe do not agree with his plan for Russia and Ukraine to speak directly.
By asking Moscow and kyiv to negotiate directly on a peace talks before a truce is in place, Trump essentially allows Putin to buy time, said another European civil servant familiar with Monday discussions. In Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators presented maximalist requests, including international recognition of Moscow control over four Ukrainian regions that Putin forces do not fully occupy and restrictions on kyiv’s military capacities.
“Today, it seems that we are back in a long-term scenario, in which Putin buys himself and his soldier more time,” Kristine Berzina, director general of the Geostrategy North program, of the German Fund of Marshall in Washington said. “Putin has won more opportunities, and a ceasefire and a resolution seem further.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed the absence of a hard calendar for a cease-fire. “There is no deadline, and there cannot be one,” he told journalists, according to the new TASS service managed by the State. “It is clear that everyone wants to do it as quickly as possible, but the devil is in detail.”
Earlier: Trump plans a 30-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia
Adding to the confusion around the American position, Trump later declared Monday that the United States did not withdraw from the conflict, but that he was planning to do so and that there was even a “certain line”, which he refused to articulate, during which he would go away. He has also not excluded new sanctions against Russia or new weapons expeditions to Ukraine, but clearly indicated that he was not inclined to do so either.
“I think something will happen, and if this is not the case, I get back and they will have to continue,” he said in the White House. “This is a European situation. He should have been a European situation. “
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“Despite the description of US President Donald Trump to have an” excellent “conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the call gave no apparent breakthrough on Ukraine.”
“It is not clear if it signals a real change in the position of the Kremlin or a continuous effort to delay talks while the Russian forces try to gain more ground in Ukraine: the first is less likely than the second.”
– Alex Kokcharov.
The confused result adds to Trump’s growing political challenges. He campaigned on the promises of quickly bringing peace to Europe and the Middle East, as well as to reclaim and revive the American economy through prices, but the two efforts are buried in the disorderly and unpredictable realities of geopolitics and trade.
Trump’s comments on Monday were more ambivalent to the conflict, and his role by finishing last week, when he told journalists “nothing will happen until Putin and I gathered.” He also said that the United States was “determined to ensure peace between Russia and Ukraine”. Trump had even suggested that he was ready to make a detour to his tour in the Middle East in Istanbul to meet Putin Face to Face.
But Russia sent a low -level delegation to Turkey and Trump has not appeared. During the talks, Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners, but have made no other advance during their first direct talks recently after the large -scale invasion of Moscow 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is already on board Trump’s request for an immediate cease-fire, spoke to the American leader before and after Putin’s call, and said Russia was to face stronger sanctions if she does not stop fighting.
“Ukraine is ready for a complete and unconditional ceasefire,” said Zelenskiy on social networks on Monday evening. “It is important not to dilute this proposal. If the Russians are not ready to stop the murders, there must be stronger sanctions. ” He also said that Ukraine was ready for direct negotiations with Russia “in any format that brings results.”
But Trump did not seem to agree on the need for more sanctions, while calling Zelenskiy “not the easiest to manage”.
Putin told journalists to Sochi that the call was “frank” and “very useful” and said that the two agreed that Russia would work on a memorandum with Ukraine for a possible future peace treaty. He did not offer any detail, adding his main subject of discussion: “The main thing for us is to eliminate the deep causes of this crisis.”
Maria Snegovaya, senior member of Russia and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that, from Putin’s point of view, this includes “the very existence of the Ukrainian state in its current form”.
“Rhetorically, Russia presents itself as open to negotiations and publicly hosts American efforts, to avoid irritating the US government,” she said. “But in practice, it firmly sticks to its original position.”
In another unexpected decision, Trump also said that the Vatican would be willing to organize peace negotiations. Asked at the White House if Pope Leo XIV newly high could help bring peace to Ukraine, Trump said: “I do it.” He had the same answer when he was asked if he thought Putin wanted peace.
The United States has a substantial lever effect on Russia if the president is ready to use it, said John Herbst, principal director of the Eurasia Center for the Atlantic Council and former American ambassador to Ukraine. Washington could “open the pipeline for substantial military supplies to Ukraine”, either as an assistance or in sales, as well as to impose more difficult sanctions.
Before Monday’s telephone call, US senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of Trump, joined support for a packet of sanctions, reporting large bipartisan support to punish Russia. The head of the majority, John Thune, said on Monday that the Senate had a bill on the sanctions of Russia “ready to leave”.
“If the White House concludes that more difficult sanctions are in order,” he said, “we are there for that.”
– With the help of Arne Dels, Dyna Krasnolutska and Akayla Gardner.
(Updates with the commentary on the Kremlin in the seventh paragraph, and an additional comment by Zelenskiy in the 14th paragraph.)
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