Retreating from danger Former President Donald Trump wants to have one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. He’s scheduled to meet privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that same day. His first order is to secure a ceasefire between both countries. For more than a year, they found themselves locked in battle.
Because of this frustration, Trump’s new initiative is a positive development. He has almost singlehandedly borne the international blame when his efforts at organizing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have failed. In those private late-night discussions with his advisers, he expressed his opposition. He learned that the process of finding a resolution can be more complicated than he first envisioned. Perhaps that is why during his campaign, Trump made the brash promise that he could end that war in “24 hours” as soon as he was elected. Now, he can hardly keep that promise.
The former president found a sympathetic ear across the aisle on the Republicans’ leading figure, claiming Zelenskyy is the one stirring the pot. He lectured the Ukrainian chief for crowing that Kyiv wouldn’t officially recognize Crimea as Russian territory. Trump thinks this promise makes the entire thing more difficult. Lately, though, he’s taken a different tack, blaming both sides instead of just pointing fingers at Ukraine.
Just a few days ago on Friday, Trump announced his intention to broker a meeting with Putin. This was on the heels of the Russian president’s absence at the peace talks in Turkey. He continued to highlight the urgency of the moment, declaring, “I think it’s time for us to just get on with it. Hopes for best day of talks today & much progress! He continued, “Hopefully, there will be a ceasefire and this brutal war—a war that should have never started—will eventually stop.” God bless us all!”
The conversations that will follow are even more important. They illustrate Trump’s fierce determination to upend a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. He has recently described the war as “one of the most violent,” doubling down on his assertion that it never should have happened in the first place.
Trump is right to be hopeful about the possible results of his deals with these two kings. He remarked, “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”
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