What does Zelensky hope to gain from his meeting with Trump? Recently, the Ukrainian president became very specific. But Putin’s certainty of victory makes agreement difficult.
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Once again the announcements sound full-bodied. “This year,” as the Ukrainian president recently explained, “a lot could be decided.” Also Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed in Moscow a few days agothat what is now important is a “final push”. Optimistic tones can also be heard from the USA. “I think we have a good chance,” said the US President Donald Trump the newspaper New York Post.
In fact, the upcoming meeting is between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump the preliminary climax of a weeks-long negotiation marathon. At the end, at least the Ukrainian leadership hopes, a peace plan will emerge that it can present to Russia together with the USA and its European allies. Putin, in turn, should then either agree or feel Trump’s wrath.
