The position of President Trump among Ukrainians is practical in life support. But many encouraged a statement that made Saturday after meeting with President Volodyyymyr Zelensky, questioning why President Vladimir V. Putin or Russia would continue to hit Ucrine while the United States is trying to negotiate peace conversations.
“It makes me think that perhaps I do not want to stop the war, it is only taking advantage of me,” Trump wrote in Truth Social after meeting with Mr. Zensky outside Pope Francis’s funeral, and added that Mr. Putin may need to be “Dalt with different”, with more sanctions.
The events of the day were a kind of victory for Mr. Zensky and Ukraine at a critical situation in the war, which is with the large -scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. The United States has been pressing Ukraine to accept a peace plan that seems partly a gift to Moscow. The proposal would force kyiv to abandon their aspirations to set up NATO, sacrifice only vague security guarantees and see the United States official recognizing Crimea as Russian. Ukraine has rejected that agreement, that the Trump administration had described as its final sacrifice.
But now, the Ukrainians see a small ray of hope that Trump does not try to force Ukraine to a disheveled peace plan. First it arose in the consequences of a massive Russian missile attack against the capital of Ukraine on the early Thursday that killed 12 people and wounded almost 90. “Vladimir, stop!” Mr. Trump published in Truth Social, in a rare reprimand or Mr. Putin.
And then, hope grew slightly on Saturday when Zensky managed to play about 15 minutes with Trump in Rome. The photos published by the Ukrainian government showed the two men sitting in chairs and leaning together, speaking as equals, a scene very different from a disastrous meeting in the oval office at the end of February that ended. The abrupt departure of Zelensky of the White House and the temporary freezing of all American aid.
The photos of Rome “were extraordinary,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, director of the International Studies Center of the Mechnikov National University of Odesa II.
“Trump’s team has had too much exposure to Kremlin and his conversation points lately, so that kyiv can present his perspective directly to Trump was useful, I suppose. I suppose. Maybe Trump will now understand a little better the Conern of Ukraine. Dubovyk said.
Some Ukrainians interviewed on Sunday in kyiv acknowledged that Trump can change his mind with the vertiginous speed. But they put comfort in the fact that the White House called on Saturday’s conversation a “very productive discussion.”
Oleh Karas, 40, who was collecting donations to buy drones outside a monument to the fallen soldiers, described the photos of the two “incredible” leaders and said it seemed that “Trump was listening to it.”
While standing in front of thousands of flags planted on the ground, each marking a dead soldier, Mr. Karas said: “You should bring to Trump here. Make him see this place. Let him go where he hit the missile. Let him see what happened.”
Since he assumed the position, the Trump administration has sometimes seemed almost stressed by Mr. Putin, a strong reversal in the policy of the United States. And Mr. Trump has not hidden his disgust by the Ukrainian leader.
Then, Mr. Trump’s statements about Truth Social after the meeting seemed to many in Ukraine as a kind of claim of what they have been saying for years: that Mr. Putin might not tell the truth. Russia seized Crimea in 2014.ukraine has also fought against Russia in the eastern region of Donbas since then, and Mr. Putin has violated multiple peace agreements aimed at ending violence there. The Russian leader also repeatedly stated that he had no intention of setting up a broader invasion of Ucrine’s right until his tanks crossed the border in 2022 to begin large -scale invasion.
That story is why the Ukraine government has insisted that any peace agreement in this war with Russia must include a strong guarantee of Secity, and why the NATO membership wanted, just although that dream has been waiting.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters in an informative session on Russian state television on Sunday that was too early to talk about the terms of any peace agreement, ADJ negotiations were not public.
The Ukrainians have counteracted the Trump administration peace plan with theirs, which requires a European peace maintenance force with the United States that provides a backup. In a publication on social networks after Saturday, Zensky did not get into details about his conversation with Mr. Trump, but said they talked about a “high and unconditional fire”, and a “reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking another war.”
Trump has repeatedly said that Ukraine is losing war and does not have the influence to demand a good business in Russia, a transactional approach to foreign policy disagree with Western leaders. It seems that the leverage that Ukraine had at one time was lost: Russia’s main military commander said on Saturday that Russian troops had a completely Russian region of Kursk, more than eight Monhs after the Ukrainian incursion of incursion. Sunday, Mr. Peskov told journalists that Putin called Russian troops to thank them for what he called “the end of an operation to release the Kursk region.” Ukrainian officials continued to deny that they had expelled Kursk’s leg.
Serhiy Hrabsky, a military analyst who is a former Ukrainian army colonel, said Sunday that talking about a peace agreement was now premature and that Moscow was playing “political ping-pong” with the Trump administration.
“Russia will not stop,” he added.
With Trump -inzelsky meeting as kyiv’s talk, Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukrainian Minister of Economy and a nearby ally of Mr. Zensky, described the encounter “an opportunity to advance: develop a true peace through force.” In a publication on social networks, he said that only the strongest sanctions and the greatest pressure on Russia could war until its end.
And sen. Lindsey Graham – South Carolina Republican who had been a firm ally of Ukraine, but changed his tone in the middle of Trump’s impulse to negotiate a quick peace, seemed to feel an openness. He praised the efforts of the Trump administration to negotiate the fire and also promoted a recent bipartisan threat to impose more sanctions on Moscow.
Even so, there is no doubt that the pressure is being built in Ukraine to reach an agreement, both at home and in the Trump administration. The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, who has had a tense relationship with Mr. Zelensky, told the BBC hours after the massive missile attack on Thursday that it can be time to renounce the country for peace, at least temporarily. Mr. Zensky has also said that Ukraine could have to give up some territory for a peace agreement, a land that hopes to recover through diplomatic means, provided that he obtains a security guarantee.
The United States has repeatedly threatened to abandon peace conversations if you can’t advance. On Sunday “Meet The Press” by NBC News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the next week “very critical” to determine if the United States will participate continuously.
And despite the positive feelings about Saturday’s conversations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zensky, questions remained about their relationship. After the letter meeting, a Ukrainian spokesman said that the two men would speak later on Saturday. But Mr. Trump left Rome after counting attendees that he wanted to return to his golf complex in New Jersey.
After Trump addressed Air Force One to leave, the Ukrainian spokesman said that a second meeting would not happen after all, due to the “very tight schedules of the presidents.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Nataliya Vasilyeva Contributed reports.
