Even before taking office for his second term, President Donald Trump expressed great optimism about his ability to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to a conclusion.
However, Trump’s efforts have since been stymied by a lack of cooperation on both sides of the conflict, with his recent, disappointing phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin as evidence of that fact, as the Daily Mail reports.
As part of his ongoing endeavor to bring the longstanding conflict to an end, Trump engaged with Putin over the phone on Thursday, but it seems that things did not end on an encouraging note.
As CBS News explained, Trump admittedly left the call feeling “very disappointed,” noting that he “didn’t make any progress with him” during the chat.
The president attributed the lack of results from his talks with Putin to his assessment that “I don’t think he’s there” in terms of reaching peace with Ukraine.
Characterizing his discussion with Putin as “a pretty long call” that also touched on topics such as Iran, Trump did not attempt to hide his dissatisfaction with the outcome.
“And we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine. And I’m not happy about that. I’m not happy about that.”
A day after the anticlimactic call with Putin, Trump took to the phones once more, this time to engage with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom the administration has, at times, had a volatile relationship.
As Newsweek notes, Zelensky reported that the conversation was “very important and useful,” particularly given that it came on the heels of a Trump decision to temporarily halt U.S. arms shipments to his country.
During the call, Zelensky was said to have expressed gratitude for ongoing American support and to press for bolstered cooperation on air defense.
The two leaders also discussed drone technology, weapons production, and mutual investments between their nations, with Zelensky declaring later, “We are ready for direct projects with America,” noting that such endeavors would be “extremely important for security.”
In the aftermath of his talk with Trump, Zelensky said, “This was probably the best conversation in all this time, it was maximally productive.”
During his 2024 presidential bid, Trump expressed confidence that he could successfully mediate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war in short order, but reality has proved far more complicated.
Trump has since said that his pledge to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office was made “figuratively” and as “an exaggeration,” his recent attempts to engage aggressively with both Putin and Zelensky suggest that he has not yet totally backed away from the role of potential peacemaker when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.
