Washington DC:
Signalling an American policy shift favouring Moscow, US President Donald Trump has floated the idea that Ukraine “may be Russian someday”. This came days before his vice-president JD Vance was set to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Nearly three years after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin’s forces are making steady progress on the battlefield as Kyiv troops grapple with shortages of men and weapons.
Amid this, the American leader, who had boasted of ending the war in 24 hours during his presidential campaign, is pushing to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiation table.
Discussed the conflict in an interview with broadcaster Fox News, Mr Trump said, “They (Ukraine) may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.
He also stressed reaping a return on investment with US aid to Ukraine, suggesting brokering a trade deal with Kyiv for natural resources, such as rare minerals.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500bn worth of rare earth (minerals), and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” the US president said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government has already signalled it was open to forging a partnership for resource extraction with the United States and other allies in exchange for security guarantees. However, no detail is available for far on any such deal.
Mr Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would have never happened if he were in office in 2022, has been pressing for a swift end to the war. He had earlier suggested he could soon halt Ukraine’s massive supply of military aid.
But, Mr Zelensky is demanding tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Kyiv fears that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments — such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops — will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.
Zelensky-JD Vance Meet
Mr Zelensky’s spokesman Sergiy Nikiforov told the news agency AFP that the Ukrainian president will meet with Vance this Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Organisers of the closely followed Munich Security Conference had confirmed earlier Monday that Mr Zelensky would attend the Feb 14-16 summit.
Mr Trump also said on Monday that he will soon dispatch to Ukraine his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who is tasked with drawing up a proposal to halt the fighting.
A source in Mr Zelensky’s office said Kellogg would arrive in Ukraine on February 20, without detailing where in the country he would visit. His trip would come just days before the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion on February 24.
Push For Truce Deal
Mr Trump has said he wants to broker an end to the war but has not outlined a detailed proposal to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.
Both Mr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin have previously ruled out direct talks with each other, and there appears to be little ground where the two could strike a deal.
Mr Putin is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its south and east that Kyiv still has control over, and considers closer ties between Ukraine and NATO inadmissible.
Mr Zelensky has meanwhile rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to secure the return of some territory.
Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine — Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — though it does not have full control over them.
Mr Zelensky said Monday a meeting with Mr Trump was being arranged though a date had not yet been fixed, while the US President had said last week he would “probably” meet the Ukrainian leader in the coming days, but ruled out personally travelling to Kyiv.
The New York Post reported Saturday that Mr Trump told the publication he had spoken on the phone to Mr Putin to discuss bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine, saying the Russian leader had told him he “wants to see people stop dying”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm or deny the call.