The telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump caused a mixed reaction from the US allies. The leaders and representatives of the EU countries, on the one hand, welcomed the efforts aimed at achieving peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, on the other, expressed fears that dialogue with the Kremlin would result in a surrender of the positions of the West and Kiev. The Trump administration rejects the criticism. A telephone conversation between the American president and Vladimir Zelensky, which took place on Wednesday, March 19, was called visible evidence that there will be no concessions at the expense of Ukraine and behind Ukraine’s back.
The Ukrainian and American presidents spoke for an hour, discussing the conversation between Putin and Trump, which, we recall, took place on Tuesday and lasted more than two hours. According to reports from the Kremlin and the White House, the Russian and American presidents have not agreed on a full truce between Russia and Ukraine: the inflated expectations from this dialogue have not been fulfilled. Instead, there is a promise from Russia to refrain from strikes on energy facilities for 30 days. Zelensky promised the same thing, but with a caveat. “Russia and Ukraine, with the mediation of the United States, can agree not to hit the energy infrastructure. Our side will support this. But it cannot be that Russia will attack our energy sector, and we will remain silent. We will respond,” he said.
Perhaps the energy issue was far from the last place in the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. After all, the attention of many European politicians is focused on her in connection with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. A moratorium on strikes on energy facilities was proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The issue of the security of energy transit through Ukraine is extremely interesting for two politicians who position themselves as Trump’s allies in Europe – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Their countries are still receiving Russian gas. Accordingly, it is also in their interests to ban attacks on the energy structures of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
As expected, the head of European diplomacy, Kaya Kallas, turned out to be the main skeptic in assessing the results of the Russian-American negotiations.
After analyzing the messages from the White House and the Kremlin about the conversation between Trump and Putin, she concluded that “Russia does not really want to make any concessions.” According to Callas’ very measured comments, it seems that she is impressed by the point of view expressed in many Western media – that the Russian president has so far successfully imposed his agenda on his American counterpart. Allegedly, the Kremlin’s tactic is to delay the negotiations as much as possible and make Ukraine just one of their topics, and not the most important one. This will allow Trump to make as many concessions as possible, while Russia will not actually make any concessions.
However, the leaders of European countries avoid explicit criticism of the peacekeeping efforts of the American president. Even the most pro-Ukrainian leaders do not condemn the negotiations between Trump and Putin. Finnish President Alexander Stubb called the conversation between the Russian and American presidents a “step in the right direction.” He held talks with Zelensky in Helsinki on Wednesday. As a result, Stubb, by the way, called on Ukraine to avoid “the kind of peace that Finland achieved with the USSR in 1944.” According to the Finnish president, this means preventing a cessation of hostilities in which the country retains its independence but loses territories and “foreign policy sovereignty” – the right to pursue the foreign policy it deems necessary. Meanwhile, at a joint press conference between Stubb and Zelensky, the Ukrainian president acknowledged that the issue of ownership of certain territories would also be raised during negotiations on a peaceful settlement. He didn’t say which ones. But in any case, Zelensky’s confession is significant and it shows that Trump manages to impose on Ukraine his view of what the world should look like. At the same time, the Ukrainian president called the legal recognition of “Ukrainian territories as Russian” a “red line.” According to Zelensky, “we will not do this.”
On Wednesday, March 19, the US president’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said on Fox News that the next round of Russian-American talks would be held in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Assistant to the President for National Security Michael Waltz will again participate in them. The latter informed via a social network that he had a telephone conversation with Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov on Wednesday. In general, the negotiation process is clearly not standing still. According to Bloomberg, citing American sources, the White House assured the EU that the Europeans would not stay away from the future agreement. “American officials have told their European counterparts that the European Union will have to participate in any peace agreement on Ukraine, as Russia wants to be freed from EU sanctions under the agreement,” the agency reports. At the same time, Witkoff said that easing sanctions pressure on Russia is possible only after the conclusion of a peace agreement, and not before it. The comments of American officials generally suggest that any concessions to the Kremlin will be made after the establishment of a stable peace and the United States will not allow Russia to delay its establishment.
After a telephone conversation with Zelensky, Trump wrote on the Truth Social network that the process of coordinating the “requests and needs” of Ukraine and Russia was underway. The American president noted that “we are on the right track, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Assistant for National Security Affairs Michael Waltz to provide an accurate description of the issues discussed,” apparently for talks with the Russian delegation scheduled in Saudi Arabia. Neither Washington, Moscow, nor Kiev can say when it comes to direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.
