Donald Trump is adamant he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in a single day if he returns to the White House in November. Getting the two nations’ leaders to agree to a deal, however, may now be impossible.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin set out his conditions for halting the carnage, saying he’d agree to a ceasefire and start negotiating for peace if they were met. The trouble is: there is no way in Hell that Kyiv would accept them.
Speaking at a meeting with the leaders of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Putin said his move to peace would be predicated on Ukraine pulling its troops out of four regions annexed by Moscow two years ago. Russia has never fully controlled the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine which Putin now wants to be handed to him.
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“As soon as they declare in Kyiv that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join NATO—on our side, immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations,” he said, according to Reuters.
Putin also rattled off other wider demands including the indefinite maintenance of Ukraine’s non-nuclear status and the end of all Western sanctions against Russia. If Kyiv and its allies rebuffed his request, he claimed, it will be “their political and moral responsibility for continuing the bloodshed.”
“Crikey he really has lost it this time but perhaps shows cracks are beginning to form in the Kremlin’s walls?!” wrote former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.
Putin’s requests completely contradict Ukraine’s own aims. The country is seeking to join NATO when the war ends and it has also called for all Russian troops to leave its land. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has further ruled out the possibility of relinquishing territory to Russia to secure a peace deal.
The two sides’ conflicting objectives would likely put paid to Trump’s hopes of getting them to reach a speedy agreement. Speaking to Fox News last year, Trump bragged about having had a “very good” relationship with both Zelensky and Putin, adding: “I would tell Zelensky: ‘No more, you gotta make a deal.’” He also said he’d tell Putin that if he refused to make a deal, the U.S. would give Ukraine “more than they ever got” in support.
The former president has still provided scant public information about what his peace plan would actually involve.
In April, The Washington Post reported that Trump has privately said he could end the war by putting pressure on Ukraine to cede some territory to Russia, specifically Crimea and the eastern Donbas region. A Trump campaign adviser dismissed the report as “fake news.”
