Trump’s off-the-cuff phone call to Putin

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin following the return of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who had first been in Moscow and then in Kyiv. The phone call had been scheduled for Monday, but the U.S. President spent the day discussing other matters, particularly Canada, so he spoke to Putin today after receiving a briefing from his envoys. He was also due to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the two did not speak. For the Kremlin leader, the Americans’ visit provided a good opportunity for diplomatic posturing, during which he devoted much of his energy to trying to ensure they returned to Washington with a message: ‘I want the Donbas, and I am on the verge of taking it by force if you do not help me through diplomacy.’ In reality, securing the Donbas would require Putin to invest at least six years, along with substantial resources and lives. His army is making limited progress at an extremely high cost, yet this does not preclude the Americans, despite the evidence, from continuing to credit his account of events.

Trump has a history of placing overt trust in Putin rather than in the evidence, and the Kremlin leader is still banking heavily on Trump’s willingness to believe one of the United States’ enemies, who is helping the Islamic Republic of Iran to strike American bases in the Middle East. During the phone call, Putin told him that he has no intention of targeting Europe, thereby clearing himself of German accusations regarding the bombs at Leipzig Airport. The Kremlin stated that Putin provided an ‘objective and comprehensive’ analysis of the situation on the battlefield and ‘outlined what the Americans could actually do to bring about an immediate ceasefire’. The Kremlin leader is pleased with the interest the Trump administration has shown so far and still believes it is the right card to play in putting pressure on Kyiv. What he fails to see is that Trump seems increasingly less interested in the war he had promised to resolve within twenty-four hours. This lack of interest is more beneficial to Kyiv than to Moscow.