Donald Trump is optimistic: the war in Ukraine can end because Vladimir Putin wants it too. But not necessarily by resorting to extreme methods: it is better for the weapons to remain silent without the need to send the long-range Tomahawk missiles that Kiev so insistently requests and which the USA would not like to be deprived of. The American president made this clear when responding to the press before starting the third meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. “We want the war to end, so many people have died,” he said.
And “Putin also wants it or he wouldn’t talk like that”, he assured, recalling that yesterday he spoke on the phone for “two and a half hours” with the Russian president. Without a doubt «Zelensky also wants peace. Now we have to do it”, he underlined. And “we are making progress”. Zelensky immediately took to the floor to praise Trump’s diplomatic success in the Middle East. «Congratulations on the truce in Gaza. You did it,” he said. Now, however, “it is time to put an end to the war in Ukraine and I am confident that with your help we can do it.” There is only one road. “We need to sit down and talk, then we need a ceasefire” and “the most important thing for the Ukrainian people, under attack every day, is to have really strong security guarantees.” And for now we are far away. «We want peace, Putin doesn’t. We will tell Trump what we need to convince him.” That “something” is the Tomahawk that Kiev has been insisting on for weeks. But Trump made a wall. “We’ll talk about it,” Trump assured, “the threat is there” but “it would be an escalation.” These are “great but also very dangerous weapons”. “We would like much more for the war to end” and “we are close to ending it even without it”, he clarified. And one of the reasons is precisely not having to send missiles: “We don’t want to give away things that we need to protect our country.”
Therefore the next meeting with Putin in Hungary will be crucial. A summit of two and not three, Trump clarified, “these two leaders hate each other”. But “we will be in contact with Zelensky.” And the President explained his choice to be hosted by Viktor Orban. «Putin likes Orban and so do I». Hungary “is a safe country and he is an excellent leader.”
If the results today may not be those hoped for by Zelensky, at least the climate in the White House immediately appeared very different from previous occasions. As well as the choreography. No passage to the sitting room of the Oval Office, the meeting began directly in the dining room. No fiery glances from Vice President JD Vance, sitting to Trump’s right, but big smiles. And the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was also relaxed. “We are starting to understand each other,” Zelensky explained. It is no coincidence that Trump began the press conference by praising Zelensky’s outfit: jacket and shirt, not the t-shirt he showed up wearing in February, triggering Vance’s fury. “He looks great in this jacket,” she said. And journalists have not failed to press Zelensky on the clothes he wears, often military. «They are the same clothes because it is the same president. The next one will have more,” he replied.