Cav's Place

The very fact that Putin, a wanted war criminal with an international arrest warrant in his name, was invited and welcomed on US soil, literally having the red carpet rolled out for him, receiving honors from armed forces who should be fighting against him and his regime, and being received by the president of the USA not only as an equal, which is a treatment that Trump quite obviously only reserves for fellow dictators, but even as a close friend, is already a great victory for Putin and another dagger in the heart of Ukraine, Europe, NATO, the ICC, the UN, and the rules-based international order as a whole. And the fact that those directly affected by the discussions that were supposed to take place weren’t even invited, along with the contrast between the reception offered to Trump and that given to other leaders, and to Zelenskyy in particular, makes it that much worse.
But, of course, that more or less remains in the realm of symbolism and things could have been far worse in practical terms if a deal would have been reached between the two, seeing as Putin wasn’t going to step back in any way, so the only way for that to happen would have been for Trump to throw Ukraine, and by extension Europe, completely under the bus, accepting Putin’s demands and forcing those affected to accept the agreement as a done deal. So, from that point of view, while obviously not good news, the fact that no deal was reached at least means no immediate bad news… But the emphasis is on that “immediate”, because on top of all of the talk about sanctions and consequences if Putin won’t immediately agree to a ceasefire and show real willingness to stop the war appearing to have simply evaporated, reports say that Trump seems to have agreed to Putin’s demand to be handed over the part of Donetsk that Russia is yet to control in exchange for freezing the current battle lines elsewhere and, supposedly, a written promise of no future attacks, and that’s what he was referring to when he said that he advised Zelenskyy to make the deal.
Now it remains to be seen what will happen on Monday, when it seems that Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump again, and other European leaders are supposedly also invited. But such a deal is very clearly unacceptable, so I definitely hope that nobody will give in, regardless of the pressure that Trump will exert. But, more importantly, I hope that the EU, plus the UK and Norway, along with NATO, will step in more and more and actually push back against the Russian regime, which at this point means directly helping Ukraine achieve victory, recover the lost territory and be protected from further attacks, but should also include similar aid offered to Georgia and Moldova and policies meant to protect from any future attacks, be they military or otherwise, along with finally ending any trade or other deals that fund the Russian regime. Otherwise, any talks or proposals, including those seen today, which apparently include some supposed security guarantees from Ukraine that would be “inspired by” NATO’s Article 5 but without accepting Ukraine as a member, are just empty words. And, of course, Ukraine, along with Georgia and Moldova, becoming NATO members is one absolutely necessary step, and the one thing that would have prevented this entire situation if it’d have been done long ago.