President Donald Trump has had a busy few days, holding meetings with both Russia and Ukraine to try to secure a peace deal.
While a deal seemed imminent less than 24 hours ago, that now may be in jeopardy.
I say this because Russia has carried out some of its most aggressive attacks yet against Ukraine.
The meeting between Trump and Putin was never about getting a peace deal locked in, but that is how the media portrayed it so they could later claim that the president failed.
The White House was very clear that this was a feeling-out meeting for Trump to see if Putin was serious about peace, and if he was, to learn what it would take to get that peace deal done.
For instance, a New York Times piece on the meetings was headlined, “Trump Returns to Washington After Putin Talks Yield No Ukraine Deal.” CNN offered up a similar take on the summit.
While the media painted everything in a negative light, Trump came away from the meeting in a positive state of mind, and then he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to D.C. for another discussion.
After Trump met with Zelensky, he was initially looking to set up a trilateral meeting with himself, Putin, and Zelensky.
Trump still wants that meeting to take place, but he is now pivoting to the notion that the United States may not be present at the talks.
Trump explained, “I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see. I want to see what goes on. You know, they had a hard relationship, very bad, very bad relationship.”
He continued, “And now we’ll see how they do and, if necessary, and it probably would be, but if necessary, I’ll go and I’ll probably be able to get it close.”
While Zelensky was sitting down for his meeting with Trump, Russia launched one of its largest attacks yet against Ukraine.
According to Ukraine, 270 drones and 10 missiles were sent across its borders, though its military stated that it had intercepted 230 of the drones and six missiles.
Even so, more than a dozen were reported dead and dozens more injured, making everyone wonder whether Russia was serious about peace. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha was furious, stating, "While hard work to advance peace was underway in Washington, D.C. ... Moscow continued to do the opposite of peace: more strikes and destruction. This once again demonstrates how critical it is to end the killing, achieve a lasting peace, and ensure robust security guarantees."
I thought long and hard about this, initially hitting Putin for not taking the peace talks seriously, but I now think this is a last-minute strategic strike. One major point of contention between the countries is Ukraine giving up land already occupied by Russia, and I think Russia is trying to make the point that Ukraine had better take the deal before it loses more land in a continued war. I don’t like the move, as I think it jeopardizes the deal, but I now understand it better from the perspective of the Russian leadership.
