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President Donald Trump has grown “frustrated" with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House said Monday ahead of separate calls Trump is holding in hopes of making progress toward a ceasefire in the
war in Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has grown “frustrated
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Trump expressed his hopes for a “productive day” Monday — and a ceasefire — in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders. But ahead of the call, Vice President JD Vance said Trump is “more than open” to walking away from trying to end the war if he feels Putin isn't serious about negotiation.
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Putin outlined Russia's terms for a ceasefire and negotiations in June 2024. He said that Russia must be allowed to keep
all the land it occupies, and be handed all of the
provinces that it claims but does not fully control. He also said that Ukraine must officially end its
plans to join NATO. Further, he demanded that the international community recognize Russia's annexations and lift their
sanctions against it.
Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, while the world was distracted by the Ottawa parking kerfuffle and Trudeau clown show in response, and that makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a deal maker after having claimed he would
quickly settle the conflict once he was back in the White House, if not even before he took office.
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Bridget Brink said she resigned last month as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine "because the policy since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”
Brink said the sign that she needed to depart was an Oval Office meeting in February where
Trump and his team openly berated Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently deferential to them.
“I believe that peace at any price is not peace at all,” Brink said. “It’s appeasement, and as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.”
In January 2024, Putin again made statements which suggested, according to the
Institute for the Study of War, that his "maximalist objectives in Ukraine" remained unchanged, "which are tantamount to full Ukrainian and Western surrender". He again called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.
