“BEST NEGOTIATOR ON THE PLANET”
On Wednesday, Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, and then followed it up with a call to Zelenskyy. Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.
The Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the NATO alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.
But on Thursday, a senior US official said the United States had not ruled out potential NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to pre-2014 borders, contradicting the earlier comments.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace”.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow was “impressed” by Trump’s willingness to seek a settlement.
Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its proxies captured territory in the east in 2014, before its full-scale invasion in 2022 when it captured more land in the east and south.
Ukraine pushed Russian invaders back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, but its outmanned and outgunned forces have slowly ceded more land since a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.
Relentless fighting has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides and pulverised Ukrainian cities.
There has been no narrowing of positions on either side. Moscow demands Kyiv be rendered permanently neutral in any peace deal; Kyiv says Russian troops must withdraw and it must win security guarantees comparable to NATO membership to prevent future attacks.
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged in the past that full NATO membership may be out of reach in the short term, and that a hypothetical peace deal could leave some occupied land in Russian hands.
But Ukraine’s Sybiha said Kyiv remained committed to joining NATO, which he said was the simplest and least expensive way the West could provide the security guarantees needed to ensure peace.
NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it was important Moscow understand the West remained united, noting that Ukraine had never been promised a peace deal would include alliance membership.
Some Ukrainians saw Trump’s moves as a betrayal.
Myroslava Lesko, 23, standing near a sea of flags in downtown Kyiv honouring fallen troops, said: “It truly looks as if they want to surrender Ukraine, because I don’t see any benefits for our country from these negotiations or Trump’s rhetoric.”
However, Ukrainians have been worn out by three years of war, and many say they are prepared to sacrifice some aims to achieve peace.
Many were frustrated by US policy under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, who vowed to help Ukraine win all its land back and provided tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware, but only after delays that Ukrainian commanders say let Russian forces regroup.
Trump, at least, was being forthright about the limits of US support, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics.
“The difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump says out loud what Biden was thinking and doing about Ukraine,” he said on social media.
