Presidents Trump and Putin, here meeting in 2018, have spoken on the phone twice since Trump returned to power
When Donald Trump met President Zelensky in New York last September, the then US presidential candidate believed that he could bring the war in Ukraine to an early end. “If we win, I think we are going to solve it very quickly,” he said.
How quickly he meant diversity over time. A few days ago in a TV debate, Mr Trump promised that he would “solve it before becoming president”. This was an increase on his previous commitment in May 2023, which was to stop the fight in the first 24 hours of his presidential post.
Mr Trump has now been in office for more than two months, and Penny may have started falling into the White House that has been trying to end a conflict as bitter and complex as it may be, which may take time.
In a television interview the previous weekend, the US President admitted that he was “a little satirical” when he promised to end the war in a day.
There are many reasons for slow progress compared to Team Trump.
First of all, the president’s faith in the power of his personal diplomacy may be wrong. He has long admitted that any international problem can be solved if he sits with another leader and agrees to a deal. Mr Trump first spoke to Vladimir Putin on 12 February, in an hour-long conversation he described as “highly productive”. The two leaders spoke again on 18 March.
But it is clear that these telephone calls immediately failed to secure the 30-day interim ceasefire, Mr Trump. The only original concession that came out of Mr Putin was a promise to abolish Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, a commitment that he is accused of breaking up within hours of calls by Ukraine.
Second, the Russian president has made it clear that he does not intend to hurry. His first public comments about talks
- War in Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky
- Russia
- Donald Trump
- Vladimir Putin
- Ukraine