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Questions remain after Monday’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Voldimer Zelenkie leaders and European leaders. Is Russian President Vladimir Putin ready to meet Ukrainian leaders?
Trump said he personally called Putin to arrange a meeting. In contrast, the Kremlin offered a more ambiguous response, admitting that the idea had surfaced, but refused to confirm whether Moscow would accept it.
For Putin, such encounters would have more weight than diplomacy. “Putin doesn’t recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty and he doesn’t want to see Zelensky,” Ivana Stradner, a Russian expert at the Democracy Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “The only way he can be in the room with Zelensky, as Putin wants to show that Russia is on par with the US, if Trump promotes, we are giving him the joy of feeding his population about Russia’s greatness.”
Ambassador Kurt Volker, who served as a US envoy to Ukraine during the first Trump administration, agreed that the Kremlin is unlikely to be upset without concessions. “Putin is unlikely to accept such a meeting if his prior conditions are not met,” he said.
Trump calls the White House “very good, early” towards peace in Russia.
Questions remain. Is Russian President Vladimir Putin ready to meet Ukrainian leaders? (vyacheslav prokofyev/sputnik/kremlin pool photo/efrem lukatsky/ap)
These conditions are formidable. The Kremlin has already rejected Ukrainian NATO-style security guarantees, but Zelensky and European leaders have excluded the territory of surrender. Stradner warned that Putin’s strategy was to test Western resolve. “In the end, Putin will challenge the soldiers on the west side of the ground,” Stradner said. “I doubt that, as we do today, any of the Western countries except the Baltic states and Poland are willing to send their children to death for Ukraine. Putin knows this.”
She added that Russian leaders are encouraged by weak Western reactions in the past. She pointed to the 2023 conflict in Kosovo. Ethnic Serbs attacked the NATO peacekeeping forces and wounded the 90. “It was Round 1. Round 2 is on the horizon.”
However, Volker hit a more practical tone. He pointed out that while Putin may take a stance at the negotiation table, Russia is working to destroy the supply lines on the battlefield and shake up the economy. “The real problem is that it will happen to the Russian supply line, which is targeted by Ukraine, and the unsettling Russian economy,” Volker said. “Putin hopes to have a ceasefire along with a ceasefire by the end of this year.”
Trump and Zelensky met at the White House on Monday. (Mandel nkan/AFP via Getty Images)
The White House tried to put Putin in the box. On Tuesday, spokesman Caroline Levitt claimed that “he has agreed to the meeting.” “Both leaders have expressed their willingness to sit with each other,” she said. Still, analysts warn that Moscow’s words are not binding.
Back from Alaska, Trump begins a week with important diplomatic talks over the Ukrainian war
The residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine was struck by the same day Zelensky was in DC. (Press services for Ukrainian provincial emergency services in the Kalkiv region/handout via Reuters)
The Russian Foreign Minister indicated that a summit was not impossible, but hedged, “Contacts, including the top staff, should be prepared very carefully.” He also requested that the long-time Kremlin roll back laws that claim Moscow would restrict the rights of Russian speakers.
Maria Sunegobaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the conference marks a change but is not a breakthrough. “So far, there’s no clarity that the Kremlin is serious about meetings, at least in public places,” she told Fox News Digital. “Even if that doesn’t necessarily bring us closer to a real deal, it would show some motivation to not try to provoke or plague President Trump.”
Snegovaya added that Putin’s calculus is carefully rooted. “For over 25 years of his rule, Putin has generally avoided attacking stronger aspects. He usually follows weaker parties in Georgia, Syria and Chechnya. I think he will be cautious about chasing the wills of his European allies, especially when strong retaliation is promised.”
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According to Stradner, Putin’s final lifeline “terror” is the last lifeline to end the war.
“He doesn’t trust Europe, he doesn’t respect Europe. When it comes to the US, he’s a light-spied US, but Trump is an unpredictable leader, which is a nightmare for Putin.”
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