Trump, Zelensky and More

Zelensky is in Washington and is meeting with Trump in person later today. Following his meeting with the American president, Trump is also expected to host a parade of European leaders including the head of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni of Britain and Italy, respectively.

Zelensky’s message appeared to be a rebuttal to Trump claiming on Monday Zelensky has the power to unilaterally end the war.

“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”

Trump in turn appeared to be pressuring Zelensky to accept Ukraine losing its claim to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia invaded and colonized in 2014, in response to the Ukrainian president highlighting in remarks on Sunday that the Ukrainian constitution limits his ability to agree to ceding land.

“The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible, impossible to give up territory or trade land,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky also emphasized that Putin had not called off bombing campaigns over Ukraine, making any negotiation difficult.

“Putin has many demands, but we do not know all of them. And if there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all,” he said. “It’s impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So, it’s necessary to ceasefire and work quickly on a final deal.”

The Russian government has remained largely mum following the Trump-Putin engagement in Alaska on Friday. That meeting was largely a friendly one in which Putin effusively thanked the United States for its cooperation during World War II and honored the fallen at a military cemetery in Anchorage.

Putin also credited Trump with maintaining peace in the region, claiming that he would not have launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 if Trump had remained president.

The far-left New York Times outlet claimed this weekend that Putin offered to write a letter promising not to attack Ukraine or the rest of Russia in exchange for being granted full control of Ukraine’s Donbass region, where Russian “separatists” have waged war against the Ukrainian government since at least 2014.