The last few days have seen a flurry of reports regarding the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to discuss a peace deal with Ukraine. There have been all kinds of rumors about this, including Ukraine ceding territory to end the war.
One very concerning story, however, is that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, did not understand comments by Russia to the point that he misinformed Trump.
The first report of interest came out on Saturday, with President Zelensky pushing back on the idea of swapping territory.
He stated, “Of course, we will not give Russia any awards for what it has done. The Ukrainian people deserve peace.”
Zelensky also demanded a seat at the table, which I agree with, stating, “Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.”
For any deal to be done, it will have to be approved by Zelensky, so not having him at the table to approve the deal on the spot rather than getting a deal in place that will only be rejected later does not make sense to me.
When Trump initially made his comments about the deal, he suggested that Russia was going to pull its forces out of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
In return, Russia would get control of Donetsk.
It was later reported, however, that Witkoff misunderstood, or possibly did not really pay attention, as it was the Ukraine withdrawal from Donetsk for the ceasefire to take place that Russia wanted to see.
Ukraine responded, “Witkoff doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Trump later clarified that he would try to get back as much territory for Ukraine as possible.
The president stated, "Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”
Trump stated that the Friday meeting with Putin will be more of a “feel out” meeting, and he also said he would speak to Zelensky, adding, "I'll call him first... I'll call him after, and I may say, 'lots of luck, keep fighting,' or I may say, 'we can make a deal.'"
To be clear, there will be no deal without the approval of Ukraine, but Ukraine’s disapproval could come at a big price if Trump thinks the deal is fair. Ukraine relies on American aid to keep this war going, and Trump could very easily tell Zelensky that the deal is the final offer, take it or leave it, but the United States is out after this. Friday is going to be a very big day for everyone, and I truly hope Trump can get everyone on the same page to end this money suck for the United States.