U-turn in the White House Trump dashes hopes for Ukraine peace summit
US President Donald Trump wants to withdraw from direct mediation in the Ukraine war for the time being. Instead, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky are to negotiate bilaterally before a tripartite meeting takes place.
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- Trump wants to schedule a trilateral meeting only after direct talks between Putin and Selensky.
- The US government is talking about a "wait and see" approach; no concrete progress has been made so far.
- There is a dispute over possible security guarantees for Ukraine, which could also include Russia.
According to government representatives, US President Donald Trump is withdrawing from direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine for the time being. As the Guardian reports, he only wants to organize a three-way meeting with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyi once the two heads of state have met bilaterally. Several White House sources had confirmed that Trump wanted to "wait and see".
In an interview with US presenter Mark Levin, Trump explained that he wanted to "see what comes out of this meeting first". His approach marks a change of course: during the election campaign, he had announced that he would be able to end the war in 24 hours. He now admits that the situation is becoming more difficult.
Following a meeting with Zelensky and European heads of state and government at the White House on Monday, Trump spoke to Putin on the phone for around 40 minutes. According to the Kremlin, further talks were agreed at negotiation level.
So far, there has been no concrete progress or a location for a Putin-Selensky meeting. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte was optimistic that a meeting could take place in the next two weeks - but Putin had previously rejected direct talks with Selensky.
Various differences identified
Possible security guarantees for Ukraine play a central role in the discussions. While Trump held out the prospect of US support in the form of intelligence or air support, he ruled out the deployment of American ground troops. His special envoy Steve Witkoff spoke of a kind of "Article 5 protection" based on the NATO model.
However, differences are emerging: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for Russia itself to be included as a security guarantor. Kiev proposed involving all five permanent members of the UN Security Council - including China, France, the UK, the USA and Russia.
Selensky also presented a plan to acquire US weapons worth 90 billion dollars via Europe and to sell drones from Ukraine to the USA. Whether this is part of the arms deal already announced in July remained open.
