FT: Trump was “not ready to put greater pressure” on Putin to come to the negotiating table in earnest

Donald Trump has claimed that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiations on preparations for peace talks, but signalled that he was leaving Moscow and Kyiv to find a deal without the US as a broker, writes ‘The Financial Times’.

After phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine Zelenskyy, Trump posted that “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War”.

Putin’s readout of the call was more tentative and he offered no substantive change in the Kremlin’s stance, while Zelenskyy implored the US leader to “not distance” himself from efforts to secure peace.

The “only one who benefits from that is Putin”, Zelenskyy said in a statement.

In remarks that indicated that Washington may be stepping back from a role as a mediator, Trump said the “conditions” for a deal could only be agreed by the warring parties “because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of”.

In his more guarded account, Putin said he was “ready to work” with Kyiv on a memorandum to frame future talks, which could include a possible ceasefire “for a certain amount of time”.

Putin told a state media reporter that the conversation with Trump had been “very candid and therefore very useful”. But he did not announce any major shifts in Moscow’s position.

“We agreed with the US president that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum about the possible future peace agreement,” Putin said.

He also said that Russia’s main objective was still “to eliminate the root causes of this crisis”, in language that signalled his central demands remain unchanged.

Zelenskyy called for “stronger sanctions” on Moscow from Ukraine’s western partners.

Trump also said that immediately after his call with Putin, he recounted the conversation to Zelenskyy together with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Commission.

Two people briefed on the call with the European leaders said Trump was clear that he would pull the US back from engaging with the conflict and leave Ukraine and Russia to directly negotiate a ceasefire. He also made no promise of future US sanctions against Russia should Putin refuse any peace attempts.

One person familiar with the conversation said the leaders were stunned by the US president’s description of what was agreed. They added it was clear Trump was “not ready to put greater pressure” on Putin to come to the negotiating table in earnest.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told reporters that the call was conducted in a tone of “mutual respect” and that Trump had expressed support for a normalisation of relations between Washington and Moscow.

“President Trump, I am able to say, spoke quite passionately about the prospects for those relations,” Ushakov said. “In particular he pointed out that prospects for bilateral relations — after the Ukraine conflict is resolved to some degree — that those prospects look very impressive.”

Trump vowed to end the war on day one of his second term but peace has proven elusive, with both sides still far apart.

In European capitals, leaders fear that Trump could cut a deal with Putin that accedes to his maximalist demands and sells out Ukraine’s interests in his haste to end the fighting.

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