Russian President Vladimir Putin remains perpetually just out of reach as the White House struggles in its efforts to bring the world leader to heel on his invasion of Ukraine.
President Donald Trump appears undeterred in his efforts to get the Russian leader to the negotiating table even after the Kremlin dodged a proposal to hold peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey this week.
The tension mounted for days as speculation ran rampant who would show up to Ankara for the meeting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, obviously, would be there. Zelensky was committed. Trump said it was a possibility. The White House claimed that Putin signaled openness, and the Russian government remained unusually mute about just who would be arriving on its end.
When Friday rolled around, Erdogan and Zelensky were left twiddling their thumbs as a low-level Russian delegation arrived without fanfare or hope for meaningful breakthroughs.
The talks lasted just two hours. The only positive outcome was an agreement for a large swap of prisoners of war — no meaningful discussion of peace.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, said his team walked away “satisfied with the outcome.”
Zelensky walked away far from content, stressing that Ukraine, the United States, and Turkey “can’t be running around the world looking for Putin” when the Russian president remains the only leader unwilling to come to the table.
“I feel disrespect from Russia,” the Ukrainian leader said. “No meeting time, no agenda, no high-level delegation. This is personal disrespect — to Erdogan, to Trump.”
The Kremlin played coy about the situation following the announcement that Putin would not, in fact, be attending. Meeting with Trump, the Russian government assured the public, remains a top priority after all these months of missed opportunities.
“There is no doubt that contacts between President Putin and Trump are important in the context of the Ukrainian negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We, of course, agree with this thesis. The importance of this cannot be overstated.”
The catch, as always, is that it will take quite some time to make it happen.
“A summit must be set up,” Peskov continued. “And it must be results-oriented because a summit is always preceded by expert negotiations, consultations, and long and intense preparations, especially if we are talking about a summit between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States of America.”
Trump gave Putin a pass on the missed opportunity, blaming the Russian leader’s absence on the Middle East trip that prevented him from making his own journey to Turkey. He believes Putin will not be interested in anything that doesn’t involve the U.S.
“He didn’t go, and I understand that,” Trump said on Friday at the conclusion of his Middle East tour. “We’re going to get it done. We’ve got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”
“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it, or maybe not,” Trump said, making the vague threat that “if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”
The wild goose chase to get Putin in the same room as his counterparts is a joke that is no longer funny for the Ukrainians, who are growing fatigued with the insolence.
The peace talks began in earnest in late February after a knockdown-dragout argument between Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance in the White House. Since that moment, Ukraine has been unflinching in its alignment with the U.S. government’s strategies, placing its hopes in the Trump team’s diplomatic muscle.
Russia has paid lip service all the while, assuring Trump and his team that they are absolutely interested in peace.
Russia’s peace proposal includes total ownership of all territories it currently occupies and lays claim to, as well as the permanent isolation of Ukraine from NATO and the West. It transparently sets Ukraine up as a weakened target to be invaded yet again.
Multiple rounds of negotiations have been conducted in Saudia Arabia seeking to get Russia closer to a reasonable position. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East special envoy, even traveled to Moscow to speak with Putin directly.
There is not much reason for the Kremlin to expedite the peace process. With each passing day, the much smaller Ukrainian military is further exhausted, and the Russian front line pushes deeper.
Trump previously acknowledged the Kremlin might be “tapping us along” on the peace issue, but he has fallen short of taking any meaningful action to change the calculus.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio floated the idea that the U.S. would begin stepping back from the process after months of stalling.
“I think we know where Ukraine is and we know where Russia is right now and where Putin is,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “They’re still far apart. They’re closer, but they’re still far apart.”
“And it’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” he continued.
That no longer seems to be the case.
Following his Middle East Tour, Trump said he is eager to get the meeting underway as soon as possible, though he will take a pause to visit his daughter, Tiffany Trump, who gave birth this week.
