Zelenskyy Should Work With Trump to End Ukraine War

The third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine brings the start of negotiations to end the war.

President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to the preliminary meeting of their representatives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This meeting consisted of a wide-ranging discussion of the resumption of normal relations between the United States and Russia as well as ending the war.

The main takeaway of this meeting was the agreement to establish high-level negotiating teams to reach a deal on ending the war. The U.S. team consists of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff and Special Adviser on Ukraine and Russia Gen. Keith Kellogg.

In preparation for this meeting, some preliminary conditions were articulated.

On February 14, Vice President JD Vance told The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and potential military action if Putin would not agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced at the meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Brussels that there is no possibility of Ukraine joining NATO in the foreseeable future, which is largely a consensus view within NATO; borders from 2014 would not be restored (it is militarily impossible right now); and that Europe would be excluded from negotiations and would have to provide troops for the demarcation zone in Ukraine after the cease-fire was reached. Trump did not want another Europe-negotiated post-2014 Minsk Agreement, which heavily favored Russians and proved unworkable.

This was followed at the Munich Security Conference by Vance’s dressing down of woke European leaders about the quality of European democracy, official censorship and canceling of elections if the proper "leftist" candidate did not win. This was interpreted as the U.S. leaving NATO by more hysterical leaders, especially Germans, one of whom actually cried.

Ukraine also would not be welcomed at the U.S.-Russia negotiation table. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would not recognize any agreements reached without his involvement and called for the European Army of 200,000 troops to keep peace in Ukraine.

His foreign minister met with the Chinese foreign minister, just to demonstrate that Ukraine could ask China to be a middleman with Russia, not the United States. Later on, Zelenskyy met with the president of Turkey for the same purpose.

A hastily called emergency summit in Paris to discuss the creation of the European Army was a fiasco as there is little European capability in the military area. In addition, Poland announced that it does not support a European Army without U.S. participation and outside of NATO.

The summit resolution as usual called for greater spending on defense and investments in defense production capabilities, as little was done in the last three years of war in Ukraine.

However, Ursula van der Leyen, head of the EU Commission, announced a modification in the EU budget rules where defense expenditures will no longer trigger mandatory budget deficit review procedures, a very small concession, which Poland was hit with recently as it ramped up its own defense spending to 4.7% of GDP, the most in NATO.

Some countries, including Britain, France and Sweden, offered to send troops to the Ukraine demarcation line. With U.S. intelligence and logistics support, a small European force could be put together to guarantee the ceasefire in Ukraine. Leaders of France and Britain met last week with Trump to discuss it.

But from Hegseth's visit to Poland it could be deduced that the U.S. has no intention of leaving NATO, even if some U.S. troops are withdrawn or moved to new locations. He announced new U.S. cooperation agreements for defense production.

In his speech in Warsaw, he praised Poland as a model ally and committed the U.S. to NATO and the U.S. presence in Poland; he emphasized the need for reestablishing deterrence and a lasting and enduring peace. Additionally, he stressed the importance of hard power and announced Poland as a strategic frontline partner.

Trump asked Zelenskyy to sign the agreement on rare earth minerals to partially compensate the United States for its aid as well as to reserve some economic space in Ukraine for U.S. interests. This kind of cooperation was first proposed by the Ukrainian government last fall.

Zelenskyy is looking toward Europe for support and at first refused to sign it, especially since he objected to U.S. conditions of no direct Ukraine participation in negotiations and demand for elections. Trump emphasizes that Europe is providing its aid on a loan basis, while U.S. aid is a gift, which the U.S.can no longer afford.

After a series of hostile exchanges, the Ukrainian government tried to demonstrate that it will block any U.S. peace plans but it left Ukraine in a political vacuum.

To break this impasse, Zelenskyy called Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday to ask for his advice. Duda told him that there is no other way to achieve permanent peace in Ukraine except with the support of the United States. Zelenskyy should calmly and constructively work with Trump.

Duda was called to meet with Trump at the CPAC conference last month to discuss Ukraine. European leaders met with Trump last week to discuss the future of Ukraine, military cooperation with the United States and the European peace forces but no agreements were reached.

Zelenskyy arrived in Washington on Friday to sign the rare earth minerals agreement, whose terms were modified in Ukraine’s favor. However, due to his emotional outburst, the signing did not happen.

Further steps in negotiations to end the Ukraine war are again in abeyance.

Dr. Lucja Swiatkowski Cannon is a senior research fellow at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. She was a strategist, policy adviser and project manager on democratic and economic reforms in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and Central, South and Southeast Asia for Deloitte & Touche Emerging Markets, Coopers & Lybrand, and others. She has been an adjunct scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Dr. Cannon received a B.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University where she was an International Fellow and IREX Scholar at Warsaw University, and the London School of Economics. Read more of Swiatkowski Cannon's reports — Here.