Trump says Putin may not want to make a deal on Ukraine

WASHINGTON/LONDON/KYIV - US President Donald Trump said on Aug 19 he hoped Russia’s Vladimir Putin would

move forward on ending the war in Ukraine,

but conceded that the Kremlin leader may not want to make a deal at all, adding this would create a “rough situation” for Mr Putin.

In an interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends programme, Mr Trump said he expected that Mr Putin’s course of action would become clear in the next few weeks.

Mr Trump also again ruled out American boots on the ground in Ukraine, and gave no specifics about the security guarantees he has previously said Washington could offer Kyiv under any post-war settlement.

“I don’t think it is going to be a problem (reaching a peace deal), to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they are all tired of it, but you never know,” he said.

“We are going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks... It is possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,” said Mr Trump, who has previously threatened more sanctions on Russia and nations that buy its oil if Mr Putin does not make peace.

Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Mr Trump’s promise of security guarantees to help end the war during an extraordinary summit on Aug 18, but face many unanswered questions, including how willing Russia will be to play ball.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the Aug 18 talks at the White House with the US President as a “major step forward” towards ending Europe’s deadliest conflict in 80 years and towards setting up a trilateral meeting with Mr Putin and Mr Trump in the coming weeks.

Mr Zelensky added that the guarantees would be “formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days”, and said Ukraine offered to buy about US$90 billion (S$115.5 billion) worth of US weapons. 

The Ukrainian President was flanked by the leaders of allies, including Germany, France and Britain, at the summit, and his warm rapport with Mr Trump contrasted sharply with their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February.

But beyond the optics, the path to peace remains deeply uncertain, and Mr Zelensky

may be forced to make painful compromises to end the war

, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Analysts say more than one million people have been killed or wounded in the conflict.

While the Washington talks allowed for a temporary sense of relief in Kyiv, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest in August.

The Energy Ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine’s only oil refinery, causing big fires.

“The good news is that there was no blow-up (at the White House). Trump didn’t demand Ukrainian capitulation or cut off support. The mood music was positive and the trans-Atlantic alliance lives on,” Mr John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Kyiv and Moscow, told Reuters.

“On the downside, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what exactly the US has in mind.”

Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Nato membership for Ukraine was not under discussion, but that there was a discussion on “Article 5”-type security guarantees for the country.

Article 5 of Nato’s founding treaty enshrines the principle of collective defence, in which an attack on any of its 32 members is considered an attack on all. Joining the Atlantic alliance is a strategic objective for Kyiv that is enshrined in its Constitution.

Mr Rutte’s comments noted that a security guarantee of that scale could be offered to Ukraine instead of Nato membership.

Ukraine’s allies were to hold talks in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” format on Aug 19 to discuss the way forward. Nato chiefs of defence will also discuss security guarantees for Ukraine on Aug 19, a source close to the matter said, without mentioning further details.

Russia has made no explicit commitment to a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky. In a social media post late on Aug 18, Mr Trump said he had called the Russian leader and begun arranging a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky, to be followed by a trilateral summit among the three presidents.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Aug 19 that Moscow did not reject any formats for discussing the peace process in Ukraine, but any meeting of national leaders “must be prepared with utmost thoroughness”.

“It doesn’t smell like peace yet. I think Putin will not go for it, he is not that kind of person,” said a 63-year-old resident of Kyiv, Ms Oksana Melnyk. “I really wanted it all to end peacefully, but, unfortunately, a lot of our people died, and it is very bitter.”

Mr Putin has warned that Russia will not tolerate troops from the Nato alliance on Ukrainian soil. He has also shown no sign of backing down from demands for territory, including land not under Russia’s military control, following his summit talks with Mr Trump on Aug 15 in Alaska.

Mr Trump has not specified what form any US security guarantees could take. In Alaska, he backed away from insisting that Russia agree to a ceasefire before any peace negotiations kick off in earnest.

Mr Neil Melvin, director of International Security at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said Russia could drag out the war while trying to deflect US pressure with a protracted peace negotiation.

“I think behind this, there is a struggle going on between Ukraine and the Europeans on one side, and the Russians on the other, not to present themselves to Trump as the obstacle to his peace process.

“They are all tiptoeing around Trump” to avoid any blame, he said, adding that on security guarantees, “the problem is that what Trump has said is so vague it is very hard to take it seriously”. REUTERS