Post #4741

The Mar-a-Lago Twaddle with Zelensky Frittered Away in “No Deadlines” Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump seem to have produced little beyond a promise to meet again next month and a reminder of how distant a peace deal remains. Yet for Zelensky, even a stalemate in the discussions counts as progress. After setbacks in U.S. support for Ukraine this year, one of Zelensky’s main priorities when meeting Trump would have been to prevent talks from derailing. After the meeting on Sunday, Trump signaled that he would remain engaged in the negotiations — a win for Ukraine given his repeated threats to walk away. Trump also backed away from setting another deadline to reach a peace deal, after having previously floated Thanksgiving and Christmas as target dates. “I don’t have deadlines,” Trump told reporters as he greeted Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago in Florida for the talks. “You know what my deadline is? Getting the war ended.” Most important for Ukraine, Trump did not echo Russia’s maximalist demands to stop the fighting, a departure from earlier in his term when he often appeared to side with the Kremlin. The change was also notable because Trump had spoken with Putin just before meeting Zelensky, the type of last-minute Russian intervention that has derailed Ukrainian hopes before. That may leave Zelensky confident that Kyiv and Washington are more closely aligned in the peace negotiations. Several European leaders also joined Sunday’s talks by phone, and Zelensky said that the United States might host a new round of negotiations next month that could include them. “We had a discussion on all the topics, and we appreciate the progress that was made by American and Ukrainian teams in recent weeks,” Zelensky said. Still, he acknowledged that several sticking points remained in a draft peace deal, including the fate of Ukrainian-held land in the east and a Russian-taken nuclear power plant. Trump said Sunday’s call with Putin had been “good and very productive.” Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to Putin, said in a news briefing that the conversation had lasted more than an hour. Ushakov also reiterated the Kremlin’s position that Kyiv should cede territory in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine to achieve peace. Trump said that he would call Putin again after meeting Zelensky, though it was not immediately clear whether he did. Trump struck a more cautious tone when asked about progress in the talks. “The word ‘agreement’ is too strong,” he said. On resolving the territorial issue, he said, “I would not say ‘agreed,’ but we’re getting closer to an agreement on that.” Perhaps the most promising development for Ukraine was Trump’s apparent willingness to hold a round of talks next month in the United States, potentially with European leaders at the table. In past negotiations, European leaders were brought in to salvage talks after disagreements between Zelensky and Trump. Their presence as full participants rather than belated troubleshooters could help Ukraine strengthen its position. #zelensky#trump#putin#kremlin#ukraine#ukraine 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸