The ball is again in President Vladimir Putin’s court, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will travel to Istanbul on Thursday to see whether the Kremlin leader shows up.
But it was Donald Trump who forced the Ukrainian leader’s hand, in the latest indication that the US President’s favour is the most coveted weapon in the conflict.
Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Friedrich Merz on a call with Donald Trump from Kyiv (Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP via Getty Images)
“Volodymyr, we stand with you to secure the just and lasting peace that Ukraine deserves”, a beaming Sir Keir Starmer told the country’s president. “All of us here, together with the US, are calling Putin out. If he’s serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it now”, he said.
But as Saturday gave way to Sunday, buyer’s remorse appears to have set in at the White House. At 2am Moscow time on Sunday, Putin took the rare step of making a live, televised address.
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Putin completely ignored the demands that Trump had endorsed for a ceasefire, and instead proposed the talks in Istanbul, insisting they focus on the “roots of the conflict”, a Kremlin euphemism for its desire to get rid of Ukraine as an independent state.
“Ukraine should agree to this IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post not long after, seemingly untroubled that the ceasefire plan was brushed aside.
Driving a wedge… and Ukraine’s response
Putin’s critics fear that the Kremlin can exploit such situations, driving a wedge between Trump and his European allies. On Saturday, Trump went along with the demands being voiced by Zelensky and his European visitors for a unified approach. Putin, the wily old operator in the Kremlin, then used his carefully timed TV address to boot it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in his unusual public address on 11 May 2025 at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow (Photo: Gavriil Grigorov/RIA Novosti via AP)He knows that Putin never indicated a personal intention to travel to Istanbul, and never posited leader-level talks there.
Trump backers argue that he is, as usual, one step ahead of everyone, and may be trying to force both Putin and Zelensky to face off against each other in the Turkish sunshine.
But after a weekend of whiplash, European leaders including the Prime Minister must be wondering if it will ever be possible to secure Trump’s backing for his supposed ally.
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