logo
Why Putin is not ready to meet with Zelensky, and may never be

Why Putin is not ready to meet with Zelensky, and may never be

RNZ News12 hours ago
By
Clare Sebastian
, CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin after participating in a US-Russia summit on Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.
Photo:
AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
Analysis
: Agreement at the White House on Monday (US time) on the next step -
a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
- seemed broadly unanimous. Then came the Russian response.
"The idea was discussed that it would be appropriate to study the opportunity of raising the level of representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian sides," said Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, briefing reporters on US President Donald Trump's call with Putin. No mention of either leader by name, or any indication the "representatives" could be raised to that level.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took a more conciliatory tone in a state TV interview later on Tuesday. "We do not refuse any forms of work - neither bilateral nor trilateral," he insisted. But: "Any contacts involving top officials must be prepared with the utmost care."
In Kremlin speak, that means they are nowhere near ready to agree to this.
And that should come as no surprise.
This is a war that Putin started by unilaterally recognising a chunk of Ukrainian land (
the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics
) as independent. He has argued Ukraine is "an inalienable part of (Russia's) own history, culture and spiritual space", and its separation from Russia is a historical mistake.
So if this meeting happens - as Orysia Lutsevich, the director of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program puts it - Putin "will have to accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn't exist".
It would also, she argued, be a huge reversal in tone that would be tough to explain to the Russian people. "(Putin) so much brainwashed Russians on state television that Zelensky's a Nazi, that (Ukraine's) a puppet state of the West … that Zelensky's illegitimate, why is he suddenly talking to him?"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025.
Photo:
MANDEL NGAN
The Kremlin not only routinely questions the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leader, fixating on the postponement of elections in Ukraine, illegal under martial law, but in its latest "peace" memorandum requires Ukraine to hold elections before any final peace treaty is signed. Putin and other Russian officials rarely refer to Zelensky by name, instead preferring the scathing moniker of "the Kyiv regime." And don't forget it was Zelensky who travelled to Turkey for the first direct talks between the two sides in mid-May, only for Putin to send a delegation headed by a writer of historical textbooks.
Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre and founder of RPolitik, which provides news and analysis on Russia, argues that while Putin does not view a meeting with Zelensky as critical in a war that for Russia is more about confronting the West than Ukraine, he could still take the meeting if he thought it would be successful.
"The key demands must be on the table and Zelensky must be ok to talk about it," she told CNN in an interview on Tuesday. As of now Zelensky has ruled out those key demands, which include giving up territory Ukraine still controls. But Putin, she argued, sees Trump as the key to changing that.
"Trump is seen as an enabler of (the) Russian vision of the settlement and for that the United States is supposed to work with Kyiv to push them to be more flexible, to be more open to Russian demands."
Stanovaya suggested Russia may try to keep the US on side by doing what Ushakov suggested, and suggesting a new round of Istanbul talks, but with a higher-level delegation, perhaps including Ushakov himself, and foreign minister Lavrov. But he won't risk an "ambush" by sitting down with Zelensky only to find all his demands rejected.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the Alaska summit.
Photo:
AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
Trump ended his day on Monday by posting on Truth Social that he "began the arrangements for a meeting … between President Putin and President Zelensky".
By the time he had woken up and dialled into the breakfast show on Fox News on Tuesday morning, it seemed to have dawned on him this was not a done deal. "I sort of set it up with Putin and Zelensky, and you know, they're the ones that have to call the shots. We're, we're 7000 miles away," he said.
Putin has no reason to acquiesce at this point. Having made zero concessions, he has been rewarded with a grand summit in Alaska, the dropping of a demand by Trump to sign onto a ceasefire before a peace talks, and the crumbling of all sanctions ultimatums to date. Having slightly dialled down the scale of nightly drone attacks on Ukrainian cities so far in August, Russia ramped them up again Monday night, firing 270 drones and 10 missiles. If Trump's pressure on Zelensky hasn't yet yielded the results Moscow wants, there's always military force to fall back on.
The only wild card for Russia at this point is who Trump will blame when this latest peace effort fails.
-CNN
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Russia insists on role in Ukraine security talks, downplays Zelenskyy summit
Russia insists on role in Ukraine security talks, downplays Zelenskyy summit

NZ Herald

time9 hours ago

  • NZ Herald

Russia insists on role in Ukraine security talks, downplays Zelenskyy summit

But Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes. US President Donald Trump hosts a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House. Photo / Getty Images Top US officer Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with European military chiefs on the 'best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal', a US defence official told AFP. In eastern Ukraine, far from the diplomatic deliberations, Russian forces claimed fresh advances on the ground and Ukrainian officials reported more deaths from Russian attacks. Diplomatic flurry US President Donald Trump brought Zelenskyy and European leaders to the White House earlier this week, three days after his landmark encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Russia's long-serving foreign minister downplayed the meeting in Washington, describing it as a 'clumsy' attempt to change the US president's position on Ukraine. Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine, earlier said European nations were 'willing to put people on the ground' to secure any settlement. US President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Photo / Getty Images He ruled out sending US troops but suggested the country might provide air support. Russia has long said it will never tolerate the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine. While Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelenskyy and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia has not confirmed this. Lavrov also cast doubt on an imminent meeting between the sworn enemies, saying that any summit between Putin and Zelenskyy 'must be prepared in the most meticulous way' so it does not lead to a 'deterioration' of the situation surrounding the conflict. Fresh Russian strikes Russia's defence ministry said on social media this week that its troops had captured the villages of Sukhetske and Pankivka in the embattled Donetsk region. They are near a section of the front where the Russian army broke through Ukrainian defences last week, between the logistics hub of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka. 'Our units are engaged in heavy defensive battles against superior Russian forces,' said Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky. Six civilians were killed by Russian attacks across eastern and southern Ukraine on Wednesday, local authorities said. One person died in Russia's western Bryansk region as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike, the local governor said. Russia's aerial attacks on the northeastern town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded at least 14 people, including three children, according to regional governor Oleg Grygorov. Zelenskyy said these latest strikes showed 'the need to put pressure on Moscow', including through sanctions. - Agence France-Presse

Why Putin is not ready to meet with Zelensky, and may never be
Why Putin is not ready to meet with Zelensky, and may never be

RNZ News

time12 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Why Putin is not ready to meet with Zelensky, and may never be

By Clare Sebastian , CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin after participating in a US-Russia summit on Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. Photo: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds Analysis : Agreement at the White House on Monday (US time) on the next step - a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - seemed broadly unanimous. Then came the Russian response. "The idea was discussed that it would be appropriate to study the opportunity of raising the level of representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian sides," said Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, briefing reporters on US President Donald Trump's call with Putin. No mention of either leader by name, or any indication the "representatives" could be raised to that level. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took a more conciliatory tone in a state TV interview later on Tuesday. "We do not refuse any forms of work - neither bilateral nor trilateral," he insisted. But: "Any contacts involving top officials must be prepared with the utmost care." In Kremlin speak, that means they are nowhere near ready to agree to this. And that should come as no surprise. This is a war that Putin started by unilaterally recognising a chunk of Ukrainian land ( the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics ) as independent. He has argued Ukraine is "an inalienable part of (Russia's) own history, culture and spiritual space", and its separation from Russia is a historical mistake. So if this meeting happens - as Orysia Lutsevich, the director of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program puts it - Putin "will have to accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn't exist". It would also, she argued, be a huge reversal in tone that would be tough to explain to the Russian people. "(Putin) so much brainwashed Russians on state television that Zelensky's a Nazi, that (Ukraine's) a puppet state of the West … that Zelensky's illegitimate, why is he suddenly talking to him?" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. Photo: MANDEL NGAN The Kremlin not only routinely questions the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leader, fixating on the postponement of elections in Ukraine, illegal under martial law, but in its latest "peace" memorandum requires Ukraine to hold elections before any final peace treaty is signed. Putin and other Russian officials rarely refer to Zelensky by name, instead preferring the scathing moniker of "the Kyiv regime." And don't forget it was Zelensky who travelled to Turkey for the first direct talks between the two sides in mid-May, only for Putin to send a delegation headed by a writer of historical textbooks. Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre and founder of RPolitik, which provides news and analysis on Russia, argues that while Putin does not view a meeting with Zelensky as critical in a war that for Russia is more about confronting the West than Ukraine, he could still take the meeting if he thought it would be successful. "The key demands must be on the table and Zelensky must be ok to talk about it," she told CNN in an interview on Tuesday. As of now Zelensky has ruled out those key demands, which include giving up territory Ukraine still controls. But Putin, she argued, sees Trump as the key to changing that. "Trump is seen as an enabler of (the) Russian vision of the settlement and for that the United States is supposed to work with Kyiv to push them to be more flexible, to be more open to Russian demands." Stanovaya suggested Russia may try to keep the US on side by doing what Ushakov suggested, and suggesting a new round of Istanbul talks, but with a higher-level delegation, perhaps including Ushakov himself, and foreign minister Lavrov. But he won't risk an "ambush" by sitting down with Zelensky only to find all his demands rejected. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the Alaska summit. Photo: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds Trump ended his day on Monday by posting on Truth Social that he "began the arrangements for a meeting … between President Putin and President Zelensky". By the time he had woken up and dialled into the breakfast show on Fox News on Tuesday morning, it seemed to have dawned on him this was not a done deal. "I sort of set it up with Putin and Zelensky, and you know, they're the ones that have to call the shots. We're, we're 7000 miles away," he said. Putin has no reason to acquiesce at this point. Having made zero concessions, he has been rewarded with a grand summit in Alaska, the dropping of a demand by Trump to sign onto a ceasefire before a peace talks, and the crumbling of all sanctions ultimatums to date. Having slightly dialled down the scale of nightly drone attacks on Ukrainian cities so far in August, Russia ramped them up again Monday night, firing 270 drones and 10 missiles. If Trump's pressure on Zelensky hasn't yet yielded the results Moscow wants, there's always military force to fall back on. The only wild card for Russia at this point is who Trump will blame when this latest peace effort fails. -CNN

Trump administration imposes new sanctions on four ICC judges, prosecutors
Trump administration imposes new sanctions on four ICC judges, prosecutors

RNZ News

time14 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Trump administration imposes new sanctions on four ICC judges, prosecutors

By Humeyra Pamuk and Anthony Deutsch , Reuters Trump's dislike of the International Criminal Court goes back to his first term. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP President Donald Trump's administration has imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, as Washington ramped up its pressure on the war tribunal over its targeting of Israeli leaders and a past decision to investigate United States officials. In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court "a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare" against the United States and Israel. Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the US Treasury and State Department. All officials have been involved in cases linked to Israel and the United States. "United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC's politicisation, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach," Rubio said. The second round of sanctions comes less than three months after the administration took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on four separate ICC judges. It represents a serious escalation that will likely impede the functioning of the court and the prosecutor's office as they deal with major cases, including war crime allegations against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. ICC, which had slammed the move in June as an attempt to undermine the independence of the judicial institution, and the office of the prosecutor, did not have immediate comment. ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict. In March 2020, prosecutors opened an investigation in Afghanistan that included looking into possible crimes by US troops, but since 2021, it has deprioritised the role of the US and focused on alleged crimes committed by the Afghan government and the Taliban forces. The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the United Nations Security Council. The International Criminal Court ICC signage and buildings in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: NICOLAS ECONOMOU / NurPhoto via AFP Although the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in its 125 member countries, some nations, including the US, China, Russia, and Israel, do not recognise its authority. It has high-profile war crimes investigations under way into the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Venezuela. The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system. Guillou is an ICC judge who presided over a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Khan and Niang are the court's two deputy prosecutors. Netanyahu's office issued a statement welcoming the US sanctions. Canadian Judge Kimberly Prost served on an ICC appeals chamber that, in March 2020, unanimously authorised the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since 2003, including examining the role of US service members. Global Affairs Canada and the office of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ICC sanctions, including against Prost. The Trump administration's dislike of the court goes back to his first term. In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the court's work on Afghanistan. - Reuters

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store