{"id":599756,"date":"2025-11-28T18:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/599756\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T18:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:58:19","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-ukraine-peace-talks-putin-is-taking-trump-for-another-ride-on-the-kremlin-carousel-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/599756\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on Ukraine peace talks: Putin is taking Trump for another ride on the Kremlin carousel | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Donald Trump\u2019s Thanksgiving Day deadline for a Ukraine peace agreement came and went this week, the Russia expert Mark Galeotti pointed<\/a> to a telling indicator of how the Kremlin is treating the latest flurry of White House diplomacy. In the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a foreign policy scholar close to Vladimir Putin\u2019s regime bluntly observed: \u201cAs long as hostilities continue, leverage remains. As soon as they cease, Russia finds itself alone (we harbour no illusions) in the face of coordinated political and diplomatic pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Putin has no interest in a ceasefire followed by talks where Ukraine\u2019s rights as a sovereign nation would be defended and reasserted. He seeks the capitulation and reabsorption of Russia\u2019s neighbour into Moscow\u2019s orbit. Whether that is achieved through battlefield attrition, or through a Trump-backed deal imposed on Ukraine, is a matter of relative indifference. On Thursday, the Russian president reiterated<\/a> his demand that Ukraine surrender further territory in its east, adding that the alternative would be to lose it through \u201cforce of arms\u201d. Once again, he described Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s government as \u201cillegitimate\u201d, and questioned the legally binding nature of any future agreement.<\/p>\n

The simultaneous assertion that a peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine this week could \u201cbe the basis for future agreements\u201d is therefore as bogus as Mr Putin\u2019s empty praise for Mr Trump\u2019s previous diplomatic efforts. The plan \u2013 which emerged as a counter to White House proposals<\/a> effectively copied and pasted from a Kremlin wishlist \u2013 reportedly calls for an end to the fighting as a precondition for talks over territory. This is precisely the route that the Kremlin remains determined to resist. News that Mr Zelenskyy\u2019s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after being placed under investigation<\/a> by anti-corruption authorities \u2013 a damaging development that could scarcely come at a worse moment for Ukraine\u2019s president \u2013 makes it still less likely that Mr Putin will be persuaded to make concessions he has never before contemplated.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump is being strung along again. But the clear and present danger is that a combination of \u201cpeacemaker-in-chief<\/a>\u201d presidential vanity, a desire to do business with Russia and Mr Zelenskyy\u2019s sudden political vulnerability will tempt him to do Mr Putin\u2019s dirty work for him. After four years of resistance, sacrifice and suffering, Ukraine must not be bullied into a cynical carve-up, which would leave it permanently vulnerable to Russia\u2019s aggression, jeopardise Europe\u2019s future security and inspire authoritarian regimes worldwide.<\/p>\n

Responsibility for ensuring this does not happen lies with Europe. Though Russian forces continue to make small, incremental gains in Ukraine\u2019s east, their advance is painfully slow and at enormous cost<\/a>. By signalling a commitment to provide Kyiv with sufficient financial and military resources to resist in the medium term, European leaders can begin to alter the dynamic of negotiations in the present.<\/p>\n

Whether such aid is to come through a \u201creparations loan\u201d underwritten<\/a> by frozen Russian assets, from the EU budget, or via common borrowing by member states, must be resolved quickly after months of delay. A signal needs to be sent to both Mr Putin and Mr\u00a0Trump that Europe will resolutely defend Ukraine\u2019s right to a just peace. As the Kremlin seeks leverage via the killing fields of eastern Ukraine and within the corridors of the White House, Mr\u00a0Zelenskyy must urgently be given some of his own.<\/p>\n