With a ceasefire deal in place between Israel and Hamas (albeit it a very fragile one), Donald Trump is turning his attention back to Russia and Ukraine.
Several weeks ago, it appeared as though Trump would give Ukraine long-range missiles to use in the conflict, but the president has since flipped on that stance.
The president says he remains positive that Russia wants peace, although that country is sending out mixed messages on this front.
If I am being honest, I feel like we are all being deceived by both sides when it comes to the ongoing conflict. One day we are told that a deal is imminent, and the next day a new strike occurs, so it has been very difficult to give our readers a truly accurate assessment of the situation.
For instance, reports broke this week that Russia was closer than ever to a ceasefire deal, but then, word that came out of Moscow suggested the complete opposite.
After Trump called for a freeze in hostility from both sides, Russia indicated that it is not interested in a ceasefire deal, but would be more than happy to negotiate a permanent peace deal, as it believes a ceasefire would just be used to rearm Ukraine.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated, “This topic has been raised repeatedly, with various nuances, during Russian-American contacts, and the Russian side has always given the same response, which is well known: Russia’s position remains unchanged.”
A report surfaced over the weekend that Trump has gone cold on the idea of giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles, something that would allow its military to conduct strikes inside Russian territory.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met last week to discuss a possible deal and the potential provision of missiles, with reports revealing that the meeting turned tense once Trump made his new position clear.
The commander in chief later posted to Truth Social that he "strongly suggested to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts."
He added, "No more shooting, no more Death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent.”
As part of that meeting between Trump and Zelensky, it was reported by some outlets that the U.S. leader told his Ukrainian counterpart that he would need to cede the entire Donbas region in order to achieve a deal, but Trump has since denied those claims.
Trump responded, “We never discussed that. We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are -- the battle lines.”
He then added, “The rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, ‘You take this, we take that’. There are just so many different permutations.”
If Trump’s supposed suggestions were to be followed, Ukraine would be losing significant chunks of territory to Russia, something that I don’t think Zelensky will ever agree to do. If the body language in the pictures from the meeting on Friday were indicative of how the meeting went, I would say we are a long way from seeing an end to this war.
