Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine, despite the efforts of President Donald Trump’s administration to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
After President Donald Trump took office on January 20, Vladimir Putin immediately congratulated him. Many saw this as a window of opportunity to reach a peace agreement in Ukraine.
However, as Russian forces continue their assault, President Vladimir Putin accuses the Ukrainians of being the ones unwilling to negotiate. Putin has also questioned whether Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has the legal authority to sign a peace agreement.
“It is possible to negotiate with anyone, but because Zelenskyy has an illegal status, he does not have the right to sign anything,” he said.
President Zelenskyy’s mandate officially ended last year, but he has remained in office based on martial law declared after the large-scale Russian invasion.
Putin claims this makes Zelensky an illegitimate president, an accusation rejected by leaders in Ukraine and others, who see it as an attempt by the Russian president to avoid peace negotiations.
Analysts say Putin is in no rush to negotiate for several reasons.
“One of the main reasons is that Russia is continuing to make progress on the battlefield, and I think Putin and his generals know that this will be to their advantage,” says Ransom Miller, an expert at the Institute for Global Affairs.
President Trump has signaled that he is less willing to pay for Ukraine’s defense than his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Leaders in both Washington and Moscow seem willing to communicate after President Trump called for an end to the war within the first 100 days of his presidency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to appoint negotiators to begin working.
With the death toll reaching hundreds of thousands and an economy suffering due to sanctions, many Russians want the war to end.
The Kremlin has not backed down from its position that Ukraine should not join NATO.
“The main thing for Moscow is that Ukraine must not be accepted into NATO or receive military support from the West,” says Anton Barbashin of the organization ‘Riddle Russia,’ which brings together a group of independent experts on Russian affairs.
In Moscow, expectations among residents for a peace deal mediated by the United States are mixed.
President Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if Moscow does not end what the American leader has called a “ridiculous war.”
However, what remains unclear is how and where the process to end the war might begin.
