Trump and Putin are discussing the end of the war in Ukraine: direct updates

But on Wednesday, things moved from bad to worse. Defense Minister of Mr. Trump made a harsh evaluation of Ukraine’s horizons in its war with Russia. Then Mr. Trump announced that he had to speak With President Vladimir F. Putin, from Russia, described the invitation to Mr. Trump as the opening of talks to end the war – without any clear role for Mr. Zellinski.

The phone call also sparked the end of American efforts to isolate Russia diplomat after its full conquest of Ukraine nearly three years ago

“It is a geological follower,” said Cleef Copeshan, president of the Eurasia Group, a risk analysis company based in Washington.

Mr. Trump’s actions in the last two days – which also included a The prisoner swap with the Kremlin This was released with an American teacher – he indicated that there is a melting relationship between the United States and Russia that Mr. Putin could prefer a peace deal while he is leaving Ukraine over the margin.

Mr. Trump also contacted the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, but in a post on social media, he did not mention how, or if Mr. Zellinski appears in peace talks.

Mr. Trump said that Mr. Zellinski will meet with Mr. Vans and Foreign Minister, Marco Rubio, at the annual Munich Security Conference, which opens on Friday.

Negotiations to end the bloodiest war in Europe in the future generations of Ukraine will be, and recent developments mean that some of its lands are likely to remain under Russian occupation.

They will form the future of Mr. Zellinski’s political future. He has only a little option of America, despite his deep doubts, which most Ukrainians are sharing, of Mr. Putin’s willingness to negotiate without imposing arduous conditions or paying more military and economic pressures.

By Thursday morning, feelings were widely spinning in Kiev, a city now struck with Russian missiles and drones.

Volodymyr Fesinko, a political analyst, wrote on Facebook that Mr. Putin was likely to play the Trump administration for time. “He will not wonder in the end of the war, as the Trump team wants,” he wrote.

Mr. Trump was not the only one who gave realistic news to Ukraine. The new US Defense Secretary, Beit Higseth, told European allies on Wednesday that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to return to its borders as it was before the Russian military invasion began in 2014.

He added that the United States does not support Ukraine’s goal of joining NATO to secure any peace settlement, describing it as “unrealistic.”

Mr. Zelinski played their weak hands before. In the opening days of the invasion of Russia, he came out of a cache to shoot selfie videos that gathered his country, and many of the world, to the Ukraine issue.

Now he faces again a pivotal moment for his country in A. Decreased positionHe drowned in local opinion polls and obtaining a cold shoulder of his most important ally.

Mr. Zelinski said twice in recent days that he is ready to negotiate with Mr. Putin if the Western allies offer security guarantees in a settlement. In his night speech to the nation on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader was interests, saying he had a “good and detailed discussion” with Mr. Trump.

“We discussed many aspects – diplomatic, military and economic – and President Trump informed me of what Putin told him,” he added. “We believe that America’s strength is sufficient to pressure Russia and Putin in peace, with us, with all our partners.”

For his part, Mr. Putin has indicated that Mr. Zellinski will need to confront elections at home before Russia accepted his signature in a peace deal.

The request refers to a Russian view of a possible process of three steps to negotiate a settlement of the war, according to a person who had recent talks on settlement scenarios with senior Russian officials.

. It is imagined that the initial truce and the initial deal, followed by elections in Ukraine, and only a binding peace settlement, said the person, speaking on the condition that his identity is not disclosed to discuss private conversations.

There were some bright points for Ukraine. Soon after his inauguration, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Putin, saying that he “destroy” Russia with the war.

Although Mr. Trump’s demand for Ukraine minerals comes at a great cost for Kev, Ukrainian officials have also seen it as an optimistic sign.

Talks on metal rights, which started on Wednesday with a visit to Kyiv by the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant, opens a road for Mr. Trump to continue military aid while claiming that he had a benefit to the United States.

“They have mainly agreed to do so, so at least we don’t feel stupidity,” said Mr. Trump about Ukraine’s willingness to give its natural resources, in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “Otherwise, we are stupid. I told them, we have to get something. We cannot continue to pay this money.”

It was before Russia and the United States showed a new willingness to work together. On Tuesday, the friend of Mr. Trump and his envoy, Steve Whitkov, moved a private plane in Moscow to restore an American teacher, Mark Vogel, a noticeable gesture of success by Moscow. On the other hand, the Kremlin said, the United States will present a criminal on the Russian Internet, Alexander PhoenicReturn to Russia.

Mr. Zelinski rejected Mr. Putin’s repeated claims as an illegitimate leader, and that Ukraine needs to lift martial law and elections. (The Ukrainian elections were delayed under the martial law after Russia invaded in 2022. Mr. Zelinski’s duration was extended for a period of five years, which would have ended last May, according to the law.)

Ukrainian officials say they view the Russian demand for democratic elections as part of a trick to destabilize the government and force Ukraine to leave its guard to vote. They urged the Trump administration not to support the idea.

“The Russians are the ones who raise the issue of the elections because they need their legs in Ukraine,” Mr. Zellinski said in an interview with British broadcaster ITV News, which was broadcast last week. “If we suspend the martial law, we may lose the army. The Russians will be happy because the characteristics of the spirit and the fighting will be lost.”

However, inside Ukraine, its local opponents are quietly preparing for a possible campaign.

Mr. Kobichan, an Eurasian analyst, said that although his decreasing situation in the talks, it is too early to remove Mr. Zelinsky, a former actor and a prominent leader in a crisis. “It has been proven that he is a skilled player,” he said. “I don’t feel that we are in the final action of any play yet.”

Mr. Zellinski is preparing for conversations as the momentum on the main front of the war, in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, preferred Russia for more than a year. It is not clear to the period in which Russia can maintain unusually high losses, which military analysts have provided at least hundreds per day.

Ukraine intervened with one influence: its control over a few hundred square miles from Russian territory in the Kursk region, which was captured last summer, which was a very embarrassing penetration with the Kremlin. Mr. Zellinski said he wanted to trade land in the Russian -controlled Ukrainian land of the Ukrainian land, which will definitely resist Mr. Putin.

If a few dozen or hundreds of hundreds of people continue to advance daily through negotiations, this will give a feature to Moscow. Then, any delay by Ukraine in accepting the conditions of the ceasefire will cost Kiev.

Nevertheless, Russia’s progress has slowed since November in land measures captured in the month of November, according to the Institute of War Study, a US -based analytical group.

In January, for example, Russia seized about 40 square miles less than in December, the institute said. Military analysts have warned that it is not possible to determine the importance of this decrease.

Anton Troyanovsky The reports contributed.