Trump’s peace plans are collapsing as the US negotiates with itself – FT

At the same time, the White House says Trump is continuing to pursue his foreign policy goals, even if it takes longer.

During a call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Donald Trump appeared confident that the peace process in Ukraine was proceeding “in full force”. But the positive assessment of the conversation belies reality, the Financial Times reports.

“Concessions without concessions”

During the conversation, Putin rejected Trump’s demand for a full ceasefire, which the US agreed to with Ukraine last week, agreeing only to a “limited truce” on attacks on energy and infrastructure facilities.

The results of that conversation, Trump’s second since returning to office, showed that he is having difficulty realizing his vision of a quick peace in Ukraine in the form of an agreement that would be acceptable to both Moscow and Kyiv.

Trump, who repeatedly called himself an “agent of global peace” during last year’s US presidential campaign, is now trying to deliver on his promises on Ukraine.

The conversation with Putin came just hours after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza collapsed. The renewed conflict in Gaza came immediately after the United States launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and issued warnings to the group’s supporters in Iran.

“Donald Trump will not be able to reconcile the image of himself as a great negotiator with the grim realities of these conflicts. The personality that is so central to everything in Trump’s world is not working,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The call with Putin also showed how effective Trump’s pressure campaign on Kyiv over the past month has been, including public rebukes of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, which has failed to yield much leverage over Moscow.

Fiona Hill, former senior director for Russia at the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, notes:

“Putin has managed to make a small concession to Trump without actually conceding anything. Putin hasn’t moved anything, and the US is negotiating with itself everywhere. He wants to win the war.”

Putin has not backed down on any of his tough demands to end the war, the Kremlin said. The Russian president’s agreement to temporarily halt attacks on energy infrastructure and to work on a maritime security agreement in the Black Sea includes a return to agreements Moscow made earlier in the conflict.

“The result is not surprising”

Trump tried to reach a quick agreement, which emboldened Putin, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. The expert added:

“Trump has done very little to create leverage over Russia, but has put a lot of pressure on Ukraine. The result should not be surprising.”

In an evening interview after his conversation with Putin, Trump acknowledged the difficulties in the negotiations.

“Right now you have a lot of guns pointed at each other. And a cease-fire without going a little bit further would be tough. Russia has the advantage, as you know,” Trump said.

The president’s top officials and his top supporters on Capitol Hill insist he remains on track to achieve his foreign policy goals, even if it takes longer than he promised on the campaign trail.

“President Trump is proving that he is a president who says what he means and means what he says. He will bring this war, which has been going on for over three years, to a close,” tweeted Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine.

“Trump is impatient”

But some critics argue that there is a serious flaw in Trump’s approach to foreign affairs, stemming from his failure to understand the complexity of the players involved and his belief that he can quickly change the situation on the ground.

“Negotiating to end wars is extremely difficult and exhausting – it requires enormous patience and creativity to find relatively acceptable proposals,” said Max Bergmann, director of Europe, Russia and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He also added:

“The Trump administration appears impatient when it comes to Ukraine and seems to just want to move on from the conflict.”

A former senior State Department official told the publication that Trump is “more concerned with alienating our allies and partners, and that means we have less power in the world.” “And if we have less power in the world, we won’t be able to make the kinds of deals that he wants to see,” the source said.

“Whatever President Trump’s vision of a 19th-century concert of great powers, he is proving the limits of his influence by punishing friends and rewarding enemies in an increasingly desperate effort to achieve quick victories,” said Kori Schake, director of foreign policy and defense studies at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute.

Trump’s stance also underscored Putin’s hard line on the war, analysts said.

“Putin was waiting to see if there would be a major change. He thought the Europeans would probably give in or Ukraine would fall apart. What happened was the US suddenly and quite dramatically changed sides,” Hill said.

Bergmann worries about Trump making further concessions to Putin to reach a final agreement:

“Any ceasefire that leads to the US stopping arms supplies to Ukraine is a huge victory for Putin, because China, North Korea and Iran have not stopped their support (to Russia – UNIAN).”

(C)UNIAN 2025