EDITORIAL: Ukraine peace deal could secure Donald Trump’s legacy

Before his inauguration as US President for the second time around earlier this year, Donald Trump was talking a big game on his peacemaking abilities.

He would end Russia’s war in Ukraine “one day one” back in the White House, he boasted.

That didn’t turn out to be the case.

Instead, the war has ground on for another seven months, claiming more lives and consuming more resources.

But now — seemingly out of nowhere — a glimmer of hope.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly agreed to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky face-to-face, sometime in the next fortnight.

If the meeting goes ahead, it would be the first time since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Could it be the start of a peace process to end the war?

Mr Trump certainly seems to think so.

He was caught on a hot mic at the White House, where he was meeting with Mr Zelensky and other European leaders, telling French President Emmanuel Macron: “I think (Mr Putin) wants to make a deal for me. You understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”

It does sound crazy, particularly given how far away a peace deal appeared just days ago following Mr Trump’s disastrous meeting with Mr Putin in Alaska.

Far from emerging from that tete-a-tete with the immediate and unconditional ceasefire he wanted, Mr Trump appeared to make concessions to Mr Putin’s demands that the “root causes” of the war be addressed — that is, demilitarisation of Ukraine and blockage of its path to NATO.

If the meeting between Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin does go ahead — and that remains a big if — there are still enormous questions to be worked out.

Russia is demanding Ukraine cede strategically important territory. Is that a sacrifice Ukraine is willing to make?

The answer to that question is dependent on another: Can Mr Zelensky trust Mr Trump not to sell him out?

Mr Trump’s assurances about the role the US would play in guaranteeing Ukraine’s safety should a deal be struck were vague.

“We will give them very good protection and very good security,” was the best Mr Trump offered to the delegation.

“We’re going to make sure it works,” he said at the meeting’s opening.

“And I think if we can get to peace, it’s going to work. I have no doubt about it.”

Hardly an iron clad commitment, but perhaps the best Ukraine is going to get. Mr Zelensky, clad in a black suit instead of the fatigues that caused so much consternation last time, appeared keen not to put the President offside in any way.

There’s one very good reason Mr Zelensky does have to take Mr Trump at his word: the latter’s obsession with his legacy.

Mr Trump is desperate to be known as a peacemaker. He wants that Nobel Prize.

Ending a hopeless war when no one else could might get it for him.

Responsibilty for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.