WASHINGTON
A highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin abruptly concluded Friday with both leaders hailing progress towards ending the war in Ukraine.
Details on whatever breakthroughs were reached have been scant, perhaps by design.
The leaders walked out of three hours of closed-door talks and quickly delivered brief remarks before reporters. They took no questions but talked of reaching an understanding whose contours remain elusive.
Amid the diplomatic haze, Trump shifted responsibility for maintaining the purported momentum to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is slated to soon visit the White House ahead of a potential trilateral meeting with the US president and Putin.
The US president further dropped his long-held demand for a Ukraine ceasefire, saying in a late-night social media post that his talks with Putin were “great and very successful.”
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he said on US social media company Truth Social.
The major shift in US policy is in line with Putin’s steadfast rejection of any ceasefire talks ahead of a full peace agreement that likely would be negotiated over months while fighting continues to rage.
Zelenksyy meeting comes after Putin secures 'win'
The focus now turns to Monday’s Oval Office sit-down with Zelenskyy, a follow-up to the disastrous tete-a-tete in February, as Trump puts the onus for additional momentum on the Ukrainian leader.
“It's hard not to see that Putin doesn't come out of this as the winner in terms of just being invited to American soil, and being somewhat taken in, out of the cold, after being exiled from the G8,” David Kearn, an associate professor of government and politics at St. John’s University, said during an interview with Anadolu.
Kearn was alluding to Russia’s expulsion from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations in retaliation for the Kremlin’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Trump, he said, walked away from the meeting “deeply frustrated” at the lack of a tangible victory that he could tout to his supporters.
“He does want this to be over, but I think he's also realizing what he's running into. But he can still kind of spin this to his base, and his supporters, as kind of a win; ‘Look I brought Putin here,’” said Kearn.
“It's troubling when he says this really is about Zelenskyy, he has to negotiate this, because then it seems to just almost be like, ‘I'm washing my hands. I've done the best I could.’ And clearly that doesn't work, because he can't really walk away from it, because the US is too important a partner to both Ukraine and to the Europeans,” he said.
Zelenskyy quickly sought to prevent the tables from being turned, maintaining that after the Trump-Putin summit, “the fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky, as well as against our port infrastructure,” a likely turn of phrase meant to invoke his since upended demand for a ceasefire.
“All issues important to Ukraine must be discussed with Ukraine’s participation, and no issue, particularly territorial ones, can be decided without Ukraine. I thank our partners who are helping. Today, there is an important statement from European leaders that strengthens our position,” he said on social media.
“We continue working together – Europeans, Americans, and everyone in the world who wants peace and stability in international relations,” he added.
Heading into Friday’s talks, two critical matters were set to be addressed – proposed territorial swaps between Russia and Ukraine, and security guarantees for Kyiv meant to ensure Putin would not resume his war after regrouping and restocking his forces amid any truce that would go into place.
While Putin acknowledged at the end of Friday’s summit that “the security of Ukraine should be insured,” it is unclear what he asked for in return.
Media reports have suggested that the Russian president offered to freeze advances in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia if Zelenskyy agreed to cede all of Luhansk and Donetsk – the key Donbass region where Russia has been propping up separatists for over a decade.
Russian forces have occupied nearly all of Luhansk while Ukraine remains in control of significant portions of Donetsk.
The missing part
The US has long supported Ukraine’s right to preserve its territorial integrity, including in the Donbass, but with Trump pushing for territorial swaps to secure peace, it is unclear where that policy now stands.
For Kearn, Trump’s emphasis on Zelenskyy and Europe continuing the diplomatic momentum should be “worrisome” for them, because he has a demonstrated history of seeking “to give himself the maximum space” to maneuver and eschew blame.
“When he says things like ‘the ball is in Zelenskyy’s court,’ well, does that mean that Zelenskyy then has the support of the United States? He has the support of the allies? The programs are going to keep going?” he said, referring to the long-standing provision of American assistance.
“That's the unsaid part of this, and without that, then it really is hard to say that he's not trying to either disengage or wash his hands of it. That would be my take on it, right? It's in Zelenskyy’s court, and I've got his back. That's the missing part, right?” he added.
