Trump backs off ceasefire
Washington Post :
After Trump’s third phone call with Putin since his inauguration, it appears there will be no letup in fighting and less U.S. pressure on Moscow.
A phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shut down an effort to pressure Russia into an immediate ceasefire and instead opened the way for continued fighting while lengthy negotiations take place – much to the consternation of Ukraine and its European allies Tuesday.
Trump’s abandonment of new sanctions on Russian indicated that he may be stepping away from involvement in the talks, something that his team has been flagging for weeks. Trump said Monday that the conditions for a ceasefire could only be agreed by the warring parties “because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”
European leaders say they had originally been planning with U.S. officials to levy new sanctions on Russia if it did not declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
But despite Trump’s exhortations for months that the fighting must stop immediately, in the course of Monday’s phone call, Putin managed to add a new delaying element to the process: the need for each side to draft a “memorandum” on the terms of a future peace treaty, a move that may leave Ukraine vulnerable to Russian aggression for months or even years.
“There is no time frame and can be none,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Tuesday, after Russia once more succeeded in deflecting pressure for an unconditional ceasefire before peace talks – initially a U.S. proposal that was backed by European leaders and now dropped by Trump.
Peskov added that this would be difficult and take time. “The devil is in the details. Drafts will be drawn up both by the Russian side and the Ukrainian side. They will exchange these draft documents, and then there will be difficult contacts to formulate a single text.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post Tuesday that firm, coordinated Western pressure was required, to make Russia halt the war.
“It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation. We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently. Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war,” he wrote.
After Trump’s third phone call with Putin since his inauguration, a pattern has emerged: the United States makes demands on Putin to show that he is serious about peace that are then countered by the Kremlin insisting that the complexity of a broader peace deal prevents an immediate ceasefire.
Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that Putin had apparently managed to get Trump’s support for lengthy peace talks with no ceasefire, a position that the Kremlin has been pushing for months.
“It appears that Putin has devised a way to offer Trump an interim, tangible outcome from Washington’s peace efforts without making any real concessions,” she wrote in comments on X.
Russia has laid down harsh conditions for any ceasefire, including that Ukraine be barred from any military recruiting or Western weapons assistance – which is unacceptable to Kyiv because it would enable Moscow to unilaterally rearm in preparation for a new attack.
On Tuesday, Peskov repeated the long-standing Russian position that the conflict be settled by “eliminating the root causes,” language that effectively means the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty and installation of a pro-Russian regime.
Trump’s indication that Russia and Ukraine would be left to negotiate a ceasefire between themselves also suggested diminished U.S. engagement in the process, raising doubts on whether a deal can be reached before the year’s end. Putin is widely seen as being convinced that Russia has the upper hand in the war and can gain more territory over the summer fighting season.
Following a subsequent call between Trump and European leaders, there was the distinct impression that Trump may not be willing to raise pressure on Putin any time soon and could even be ready to scale back U.S. involvement in mediation, said a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
Just a week ago, European leaders were threatening Russia with major E.U. and U.S. sanctions if it didn’t accept an immediate ceasefire. But the threats from European leaders appeared more guarded after Monday’s phone call, even as they expressed frustration with Putin’s moves.
“Vladimir Putin is obviously continuing to play for time,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters Tuesday at a meeting of European ministers. He said even that though Russia “is prepared to talk about a memorandum,” there was still “no sign” of a ceasefire.
Pistorius said Kyiv’s European backers can keep delivering weapons or money “to the best of our ability, and at the same time, of course, we can continue to participate in diplomatic efforts, but what I am convinced the European Union can and must do is tighten the sanctions screw so that it really becomes clear that we will not be prepared to continue tolerating Russia’s actions here without consequences.”
Without the U.S. on board, the European Union and Britain adopted fresh sanctions against Moscow on Tuesday, including targeting the “shadow fleet” used to skirt the embargo on Russian oil. E.U. diplomats said they would prepare a new round of tougher sanctions targeting energy and banking. But that is likely to take time and unanimity, and European leaders had been hoping for a wider, swift sanctions push coordinated with Washington to raise the stakes for the Kremlin.
E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said officials would keep working on the next package, the bloc’s 18th, but acknowledged that “it is difficult and becoming more difficult.”
“I don’t think we have a choice, we need to put more pressure,” she added.
One of the more surprising elements to emerge from the call was talk of the Vatican playing a central mediation role in future negotiations. An Italian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to outline internal discussions, said the topic of deeper Vatican involvement was raised in several meetings between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani during the Americans’ visit to Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration Sunday.
“The Vatican … is seen as an acceptable mediator, and the Americans signaled that they prefer this to another neutral place. That the Vatican gives the sign of a place in Western civilization where peace can be discussed,” the official said.
The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment on Trump and Meloni’s disclosure of Leo’s offer to host ceasefire talks at the Holy See. The offer, however, would not be uncharacteristic. The Vatican has a long tradition of seeking to defuse conflict, mediating talks between the government and opposition in Venezuela, as well as with the U.S. and Cuba to pave the way for President Barack Obama’s visit to Havana in 2016.
In contrast to his predecessor’s more conciliatory approach toward Russia, Leo bluntly described Russia’s war as an “imperial invasion” and land grab. During his first days as pope, he has repeatedly mentioned Ukraine and met privately with Zelensky on Sunday.
“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people,” Leo said during his first Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square. “May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just and lasting peace, as soon as possible. Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families.”
In Russia, the main reaction to the call was a sense that Trump was moving the U.S. closer to Russia and seeing it as one of its most important trading partners.
“The presidents talked in much detail about the future of our relations in their conversation, with President Trump having spoken quite emotionally about the prospects of these relations. He repeatedly emphasized that he favored mutually respectful and mutually beneficial relations with Russia, given its role in the world and its economic position,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Outlining more details of the call on Tuesday, he was at pains to emphasize the close connection between Trump and Putin, saying that the U.S. president expressed his regret that Washington and Moscow were further apart now than they were as World War II allies.
“The leaders spoke a lot and with warmth about how our countries were allies during World War II, fighting together against Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan. Trump remembered this military brotherhood,” Ushakov said.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s Federation Council, the upper legislative chamber, said Russia and the U.S. had emerged as negotiation partners against Europe and Ukraine.
“Based on the results of the conversation between Putin and Trump, there is a feeling that two consultative and negotiating groups have finally, but not irrevocably, formed: Russian-American and Ukrainian-European. The first is discussing the prospects for achieving peace, the second – the possibility of continuing the war,” he wrote on social media.