Trump's Call With Putin To Broker Ukraine Ceasefire A Clear Flop

Russian President Offers Meaningless Concessions, No Workable Ideas To End War

- Jonathan Eyal

LONDON - US President Donald Trump is putting on a brave face over the outcome of his much-anticipated phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine.

The effort to reach a ceasefire "is now in full force and effect, and we will hopefully, for the sake of humanity, get the job done", claimed Mr. Trump on Truth Social, his preferred online platform, soon after his talk with Mr. Putin ended in the late hours of March 18.

In reality, however, the phone conversation between the two leaders was a clear flop.

Instead of matching Ukraine's gesture by accepting a total and unconditional ceasefire, Mr. Putin offered his US counterpart only a 30-day halt in Russian attacks on Ukrainian "energy and infrastructure", a meaningless concession that was promptly ignored by Russia's armed forces.

And instead of outlining workable ideas for a potential settlement to the war, Mr. Putin merely repeated Russia's demands for Ukraine's effective surrender.

The Russian leader believes he has the upper hand in the current confrontation.

And Mr. Putin also assumes, probably correctly, that he can extract more significant strategic concessions from the US in the weeks to come.

Either way, Mr. Trump's boast that he is about to broker peace in Europe rings increasingly hollow.

Since Feb. 12, when the Russian and US presidents first started talking directly about Ukraine, Mr. Trump's working assumption was that Russia wanted a halt to the bloodshed, and it was only Ukraine that opposed a ceasefire.

This US impression was strengthened by the stance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who argued that his country must get security guarantees from its Western allies before it agrees to any cessation of hostilities.

This rigid position led to the unprecedented White House bust-up between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, conducted in full view of the world's cameras on Feb. 28.