In neutral. Yuri UshakovVladimir Putin’s court advisor, acknowledged in the early hours of Wednesday that the five-hour meeting that the Russian president had just had with the emissaries of Donald Trump had not translated into significant progress towards resolving the war. “We are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine and there is a lot of work to do,” he said in statements reported by the Russian press.
Putin’s confidant also acknowledged that the parties were also unable to find “a compromise solution on the territorial issue.” That is to say, there was no agreement on the territorial cessions that the parties must claim from kyiv. Ushakov clarified at this point that Trump’s envoys had presented their own proposals on the distribution of territories.
In the absence of knowing the exact details of his long meeting with the American delegation led by Steve Witkoff y Jared Kushnerthe Russian president, Vladimir Putinwanted to make clear the framework of the conflict and the threat facing the West. A few hours before the start of the meeting, Putin stated before the media that Europe was the great obstacle not only to peace or to his own aspirations… but to those of Trump and the United States.
According to the autocrat, it is the “unacceptable” peace proposals of the Europeans that prevent an agreement from being reached. It is a message that must sound wonderful in the ears of the members of the MAGA Administration, who, after all, have repeated that same idea several times. Europe is the common enemy of the two and everything could be easily resolved: by forcing Ukraine to give up territory and sovereignty and then share part of its resources and resume trade agreements as soon as possible.
In fact, it is no coincidence that the two sent by Trump to the meeting in which the future of European stability can be decided are two businessmen: Steve Witkoff, real estate investor and frequent golf companion of the president at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the Republican leader, essential mediator in the Abraham Accords between the United Arab Emirates and Israel… and CEO of Affinity Partners, a company that he founded after his work for the public administration and which is dedicated, precisely, to seeking investors in Middle East.
If anti-Europeanism is a defining mark of the MAGA movement and the vice president JD Vancethe need to do business with everything and the vision of the world as a huge market is typical of Trump and his closest environment. Putin is absolutely right to cast the White House as the victim of the intransigence of his allies. You’re right, well, if what you want is to gain Trump’s sympathy even more and greatly complicate the diplomatic existence of VolodÃmir Zelenski.
A new nuclear threat
The image of Europe as a warmongering conglomerate that only understands war and destruction was accompanied by traditional military threats. Russia wants peace and would never dream of attacking the European Union or NATO. A drone may sneak into the airspace of Romania or Poland and its fighters may fly over Estonia from time to time, but it is pure chance.
Mark Ruttesecretary general of the Alliance, stated at the time that it was absurd to respond to these provocations because the difference between both parties was too great. Another thing is what Putin understood, of course. For someone constantly searching for other people’s weaknesses and a somewhat diffuse sense of reality, perhaps the effect was the opposite.
The Russian leader raised the ante by stating that not only was Russia prepared for a war with Europe, but that an escalation of war could reach the moment when “there would be no one to negotiate with”, in clear reference to a nuclear apocalypse. It is a trick that Putin knows from the Soviet era and that, in general, has worked quite well: selling to a certain Western public that Russia may have “no choice” but to wipe out humanity. It will be easier to take his side and give him what he asks for, a scenario very similar to that of 1939.
The strange Chinese coincidence
The Russian intention, in any case, is to turn the imperialist invasion of a neighboring sovereign country into a world war of whatever intensity. He believes that this way he can cover up his failure and, in some way, his image. If the conflict goes beyond a nationalist daydream and can be disguised as part of a dispute between global axes, the solution ends up being so complicated that, out of sheer boredom, many will tire of looking for it.
Nor can it be a coincidence that, on the same day that Witkoff and Kushner visited Moscow, so did the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yito meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The objective is to add actors to the negotiation so that Europe and, above all, Ukraine, become increasingly isolated, opening a gap in the Western bloc not seen since the end of the Second World War. A gap that the vast majority of the American people, including the most traditionalist wing of the Republican Party, does not support.
Be that as it may, Witkoff and Kushner planned to meet in person with Zelensky this Wednesday to convey the Russian proposal to him. A proposal that, even if Zelensky accepted it, Putin would soon reject. He is convinced that he can achieve his objectives on the battlefield or that, otherwise, the kyiv Government itself will end up imploding due to the corruption cases that threaten it. That is where Putin understands that his great opportunity may come… without having to launch nuclear missiles at any European capital.
However, on the same Tuesday night, the Ukrainian president warned that this meeting would only take place if the signals sent by the Americans were positive. Otherwise, it is understood that there will be no meeting and that everything will continue as before, that is, with a peace plan that neither Europe nor Ukraine nor Russia accept and that gives the impression that President Trump has not even read.