NYT: “A one-on-one summit will give Mr. Putin an opportunity to sway Mr. Trump, long sympathetic to Russia, back to supporting the Russian leader’s views”

Putin and Trump in 2017.
Photo: RIA Novosti

The Russian leader sees direct talks with Trump as essential to achieving his ultimate aims in Ukraine, ‘The New York Times’ writes.

President Vladimir V. Putin has long said he wants to sit down with President Trump.

The reason: He believes that such a meeting, rather than just progress on the battlefield, is his best chance for securing a victory in his war against Ukraine.

Analysts who study Mr. Putin, as well as people who know him, have said since the early days of the war that the Russian leader’s overarching goal is primarily to secure a peace deal that achieves his geopolitical aims — and not necessarily conquering a certain amount of territory on the battlefield.

And it is the U.S. president, they say, who is best positioned to deliver on those aims — which include keeping Ukraine out of NATO and preventing the alliance’s future expansion. That helps explain why Mr. Putin has appeared so focused on placating Mr. Trump and avoiding a break with Washington, even as Mr. Trump has shown growing impatience with Mr. Putin’s refusal to agree to a cease-fire.

“It is probably better for us to meet,” Mr. Putin said of Mr. Trump in January, “and, based on today’s realities, talk calmly about all areas that are of interest to both the U.S. and Russia.”

The Kremlin confirmed on Thursday morning that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump planned to meet in the coming days, but did not set an exact date for the sought-after summit.

The White House’s sudden commitment to hold a summit has raised questions about what, if anything, Mr. Putin agreed to on Wednesday during his talks in Moscow with Mr. Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Exactly what the two men discussed is unclear. The Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said Mr. Putin had conveyed certain “signals” to Mr. Witkoff on Ukraine, but did not go into detail.

Some analysts suggested that Mr. Putin had told envoys during talks this year to stick only to the hardest-line position, in order to force a meeting between him and Mr. Trump. Russian officials may be hoping that a one-on-one summit will give Mr. Putin an opportunity to sway Mr. Trump, long sympathetic to Russia, back to supporting the Russian leader’s views on what he calls “the root causes of the conflict.”

People close to the Kremlin, as well as political analysts, say that Mr. Putin’s demands — to exclude Ukraine from NATO, limit Ukrainian military capabilities and lay the groundwork for a more Moscow-friendly government in Kyiv — are more important to him than the specifics of what territory Russia ultimately controls.

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