It appeared, at least superficially, to have been one of the best face-to-face meetings between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, their sixth in a year in which this relationship has reached breaking point and requires regular and painstaking repair.
The mood as they emerged from the dining room at Mar-a-Lago was conciliatory. Zelensky was wearing a suit – the same austere black compromise statement he had worn at the White House in October. Trump called the meeting “exceptional” and asked if Zelensky and his general who “looked like a central cast” enjoyed the food. Awkward, yes, but a far cry from the open humiliation of the Ukrainian leader that took place in the Oval Office in February.
And yet, beneath the veil of politeness, there has been rhetoric from the US president suggesting that his default position in the negotiations is still to pressure Kiev while placating Moscow.
On the toughest question of all — territory — Trump suggested at one point that it could be “taken” anyway in the coming months, asking, “Is it better to make a deal now?” It was a line eerily similar to that of Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov summing up a call between President Vladimir Putin and Trump earlier Sunday: “Given the situation on the front line, it would make sense for the Ukrainian regime to make this decision on Donbas without delay.”
That echo was not lost on the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, noted in a call with reporters that Trump “seems to have reminded them (the Ukrainian side) that Ukraine is losing ground and will continue to lose it.” As Russian forces continue to advance in the eastern Donbass region, Putin has called on Ukraine to cede land that Russia has yet to seize.
The Kremlin would have already been confident in its power to influence the US president. In the run-up to the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin in August, European leaders have worked hard to sway Trump to the idea that a ceasefire is needed before peace talks, something Moscow has always rejected. In the end, it was Putin who won that argument, and more than four months later, Trump still seems to be making his case.
President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on August 15. – Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
“He (Putin) feels like, look, you know, he’s struggling to stop and then if he has to start again, which is a possibility, he doesn’t want to be in that position. I understand that position,” Trump said Sunday.
The apparent removal of a ceasefire from the table has now created a new stalemate. As Ukraine sounds increasingly open to talks on territorial concessions, Zelensky has indicated that relinquishing or changing the status of Ukrainian land would likely require a referendum, which he says cannot happen without a ceasefire lasting at least 60 days.
No ceasefire means, then, no referendum, and no referendum could mean no territorial concessions from Ukraine, and ultimately no agreement. So we’re back on the diplomatic merry-go-round, buying more and more time for Russia to attack.
“Russia wants to continue to put pressure on us. And what does this continuation look like? War, missiles, artillery,” Zelensky said in comments to journalists on Monday morning. As he spoke, most Ukrainian regions began a new week with regular power outages, and more than 9,000 households in the Kyiv region found themselves without electricity.
Unsurprisingly, then, the Ukrainian president shifted uncomfortably as he listened to Trump describe Putin as “very good” on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia seized by force in March 2022 and has occupied ever since.
“President Putin is actually working with Ukraine to open it up. That’s a big step when he’s not bombing that plant,” the US president said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is currently undergoing repairs to nearby power lines to prevent a nuclear accident, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The facility has been cut off from external power 12 times since Russia’s occupation, and earlier this month the UN nuclear watchdog warned that Moscow’s constant attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were also a threat to its security. “Persistent instability in Ukraine’s electricity grid continues to undermine nuclear safety,” Director General Rafael Grossi said.
On a critical issue for Ukraine, there was a small step forward: security guarantees. Until now, Kiev had only verbal assurances that the US would participate in post-war security guarantees after Trump reversed his position in August. Now those assurances are in writing, albeit with a 15-year expiration date — which Zelensky wants an extension to — and still need congressional approval. The guarantees wouldn’t mean US troops on the ground, but at least there would be support for Europe if they decided to send theirs. “We will help Europe 100 percent as they would help us,” Trump said.
Firefighters work at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian missile and drone strikes in Kiev, Ukraine, on Saturday. – Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
And yet, until Russia and Ukraine come together for direct talks, which Zelensky hopes could happen in January after another round of talks with allies, this is all hypothetical. That prospect looked even more remote on Monday after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Kiev of attacking one of Putin’s residences, vowing that Moscow would “review” its negotiating position. Zelensky dismissed the claim as “another lie” by Russia.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, reiterated on Monday that Russia wants “the withdrawal of the regime’s armed forces from Donbas beyond its administrative borders.” This, of course, includes the territory that Russia has been unable to occupy in nearly four years of war. And in return, Moscow continues to receive praise and diplomatic overtures from the White House, with Trump speaking to Putin both before and after his meeting with Zelensky.
The diplomatic merry-go-round now returns in 2026, with adviser-level meetings followed by a meeting of the “Coalition of the Will” in Paris in early January and then a potential summit in Washington with Trump, Zelensky said on Monday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has proposed that talks continue in several working groups, an idea supported by Moscow.
And yet, in this now largely predictable cycle, you can’t rule out a sudden change. In October, a frustrated Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil giants, a move that sent Russian oil prices to their lowest level since the February 2022 invasion.
“Perhaps the tug of war for Trump is not yet lost for Ukraine. Leaders are meeting, conversations are ongoing,” Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House think tank in London, wrote in a post on X. Former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev struck a less optimistic tone. “If you want to delay something indefinitely – create some task forces,” he wrote.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Victoria Butenko, Darya Tarasova, ISSY ROALD, SVITLANA VLASOVA, Mitchell McCluskey and adinininiti BANGOW contributed to this report.
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