THE WASHINGTON POST: Trump’s rush for Ukraine peace deal may leave details up to Putin

President Donald Trump arrived at his historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in this breezy Alaskan city with a clarion goal in mind: a halt to years of bloody fighting in Ukraine. Ideally within days.

The details about how to get there? Not as important.

For a president who loves to win, victories tend to overshadow details. That style has created an advantage for the aggressor, leaders and analysts say, since only the Kremlin can order an end to the invasion of its neighbour and deliver the peace Trump so dearly wants.

Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin on Friday, showcasing his fondness for the leader in an extraordinary welcome for the Russian president, who had not set foot on American soil in years.

The US leader is racing toward an agreement over breakneck days of talks that will continue Monday with a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has declared that he wants next to meet jointly with Putin and Zelenskyy, potentially within the next week.

“Number one is lives. And number two is everything else,” Trump told Fox’s Sean Hannity after meeting Putin. “Wars are very bad. And if you can avoid them - and I seem to have an ability to end them, to get people together. I use the power of the United States.”

European leaders, meanwhile, are trying to slow down the pace to take Ukraine’s concerns into account - and to avoid simply responding to Putin’s maximalist demands.

But they are already on the back foot, with Trump having jettisoned their very first principle - a ceasefire first, then more complex talks afterward - after feting Putin in Alaska and making clear his thirst for a deal.

Trump declared Saturday that they would “go directly to a peace agreement” and skip an initial ceasefire, a strategy that would make it easier for Putin to dictate terms at gunpoint and that comes despite Ukrainian and European objections. Skipping the ceasefire also potentially allows the Kremlin to extend the war.

“The whole idea of heading for a full agreement favours Putin,” said a senior European diplomat, speaking like others under the condition of anonymity to describe Europe’s reaction to the talks in frank terms. “Putin and his team know all the details” and Trump doesn’t, the diplomat said.

Putin’s price for peace would include Kyiv handing away yet more strategic territory, Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders. Putin is demanding full control of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, including an area that is a critical defensive barrier against Russia’s ability to drive straight westward into the country’s heartland. The Russian is offering no territory in exchange.

That might be unacceptable to the Ukrainians, and is the sort of detail that most negotiators versed in the situation would recognise immediately. Whether Trump did not understood the nuance - or didn’t care - is unclear.

European leaders had agreed during a Wednesday video conversation with Trump that he would demand a ceasefire from Putin before going any further. That went out the window after Putin’s meeting with Trump, something that frustrated the Europeans, who felt that the best bargain for Kyiv would come if the shooting stops first.

Trump “said himself that a ceasefire was his absolute most important and highest priority. So, it was a joint demand, which isn’t happening now,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told ZDF, a public broadcaster, on Saturday. “We would have indeed hoped for a ceasefire first. The Russian side was obviously unwilling to do that.”

Trump’s love of deals motivated him throughout his business career. Now that desire to win is a driving force behind his foreign policy, whether he’s negotiating tariffs or trying to broker peace.

“Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry,” Trump wrote in his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.” “I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

This strategy has been on display as he has negotiated tariffs with foreign leaders. In recent months, Trump has said he secured historic deals with the European Union, Britain and many other US trading partners. But the agreements have largely just been general principles that outline contours of deals, which typically take years to negotiate and are hundreds of pages long.

Trump negotiates based on emotion, seeking to feel out other world leaders, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, who was an intelligence adviser during Trump’s first term and is now the director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security.

“His inclination is to want to get along with Putin and therefore that makes him much more inclined to agree to Russia’s terms and see the world through Putin’s eyes,” Kendall-Taylor said.

But Trump’s negotiation strategy is limited because he lacks knowledge of the facts of the war in Ukraine, she added.

“It is very hard to drive a hard bargain if you don’t know the facts,” Kendall-Taylor said. “They were not negotiating on a level playing field because Trump just doesn’t have the mastery of the subject that Putin does.”

Trump is, however, opening a door to US-backed security guarantees for Ukraine, a measure that could boost Kyiv’s position and would address some of its longtime concerns, three officials familiar with his Air Force One conversation with the Europeans said.

The president appeared to open the door to US military commitments as part of that assistance, the officials said, although they said Trump spoke vaguely and his words were open to interpretation.

The US leader has positioned himself as a global peacemaker as he campaigns for the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming credit for ending half a dozen conflicts around the world. After the Putin meeting, he floated that a peace deal in Ukraine could secure the award.

“Well, it’s interesting, because somebody said, if I get this settled, I will get the Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump told Fox’s Hannity. “I said, ‘Well, I’m not involved in it. But what about the other six wars or whatever it is?’”

To end the war in Ukraine, Trump said, the Ukrainians will likely have to accept Russia’s demands. He declared his belief that Putin wanted peace, despite having invaded Ukraine unprovoked in 2022 and continuing to bomb the country even as the talks were underway Friday. And he dwelled on his personal chemistry with the Russian president.

“I think we have agreed on a lot,” Trump said about Putin. “The meeting was a very warm meeting. He’s a strong guy. He’s tough as hell and all of that. But the meeting was a very warm meeting between two very important countries.”

Hannity asked Trump what he was going to advise Zelenskyy.

“Make a deal,” Trump said. “Look, Russia’s a very big power. And they’re not. They’re great soldiers.”

He added: “I think President Putin would like to solve the problem.”

Trump’s conciliatory approach to Putin’s demands showed the limits of rushing to a deal, said Fiona Hill, Trump’s top Russia adviser during his first term.

Trump “has met his match,” Hill said. “Because Trump isn’t willing to coerce Putin. He is just not willing to apply pressure. Putin is a much bigger bully than Trump is.”

The White House push for Ukraine to accept Putin’s terms shows the risks of having held the summit, Hill said.

“That’s exactly what I was worried about, that Putin would have narrative dominance and it seems like he did,” she said.

If Zelensky arrives in Washington on Monday and rejects what’s on offer from Putin and Trump, he may be risking another White House blowup, as happened in February when the president ousted him from the Oval Office after a contentious meeting.

This time, though, the gaps may be unbridgeable, said Kendall-Taylor, the former intelligence officer.

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