Fresh from Middle East victory, Trump sets his sights on peace in Ukraine

Pressure on Hamas worked for Gaza, but Trump has yet to fully ramp up pressure on Russia

- Robbie Gramer & Ian Lovett

Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.

(AP)

resident Trump scored a major foreign-policy win in Gaza by brokering the release of hostages from captivity and securing an end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Now Europeans are hoping Trump can repeat the success with another knotty foreign-policy problem.

Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, according to officials familiar with the plans, on the heels of his diplomatic victory tour in the Middle East. At his stops in Israel and Egypt, Trump referenced the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine, underscoring how, as he touted his achievements on one major conflict, he has still set his sights on resolving another.

The two wars are vastly different. In the 2022 Russian invasion and Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, respectively, Ukraine and Israel both faced unprovoked attacks that triggered the wars. But in the Middle East, Israel proved itself to be the dominant regional military force, while in Europe, it is Russia that remains a major global power with a sizable nuclear arsenal.

Senior U.S. and European officials caution that neither Russia nor Ukraine will change their war strategies over Trump’s initial success in the Middle East. They also point out that a longer-term deal to bring lasting peace to Gaza is far from certain.

But they still hope the U.S. president can seize on the momentum of the diplomatic victory—and draw the right lessons to revive efforts to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin back to the negotiating table.

“This gives Trump enormous leverage to solve other major conflicts,” said Fred Fleitz, who was a senior National Security Council official during the first term. “He’s now proven himself as an effective arbiter and peacemaker.”