How Trump’s engagement with Russia challenges European policies

WITHIN 10 minutes of his call with US President Donald Trump this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his military to halt all attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

- ABBEY MAKOE

That is how apparently eager and determined Trump and Putin are to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, which Trump vows would never have started had he been in the Oval Office.

The meeting between the two pres-idents of the leading nuclear nations lasted more than two hours. It was the second known official engagement between the pair since Trump became the 47th US president on January 20. The cordial call evidently removed yet more hurdles on the road to a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia, and by extension, Moscow and the West.

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, listened in through-out the telephonic meeting between Trump and his Russian counterpart. Visibly delighted by the way the telephone discussions went, Witkoff described the call simply as “epic”, adding that the two leaders were in “sync with one another”.

Within a day of the Trump-Putin call, one of the first borne fruits was har-vested. It was the “175-for-175 prison-ers of war swap”. Goodwill between warring sides often starts in baby steps. But then again, the most difficult part of any peace deal is the very start itself.

Trump is understandably upbeat about the progress made so far. Attainment of peace in Ukraine is his top priority, an electioneering promise. A day after his telephone meeting with Putin, he held an encouraging hour-long similar meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. As soon as he dropped the call, Zelensky posted on social media about how optimis-tic he felt about the illusive peace. I paint this picture to illustrate the common view of all the major protag-onists in the conflict — the US, Russia, and Ukraine. Once the three main players are on the same wavelength, I think no amount of European war-mongering will scupper the path to peace.