"He thought he could strike a deal with a simple transaction that recognized Russia's territorial gains and appealed to its economic interests. He did not understand how committed Vladimir Putin was to the destruction of an independent Ukrainian state, or how difficult it would be to compel him to accept anything less. Recently President Trump tried to change the dynamic: He told Putin he might give Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles, and he tried to berate Volodymyr Zelensky into conceding territory, but both to no avail."
"To hear senior Trump-administration officials tell it, they are very close to settling the war, if only the parties would be reasonable. They appear to view the fundamental conflict as simple and susceptible to compromise: Russia wants the remaining land that it does not control in the Donbas; Ukraine wants robust security guarantees. But in fact the problem is much more intractable and difficult than that."
Donald Trump attempted to negotiate a settlement that would recognize Russia's territorial gains and appeal to Russian economic interests, but those efforts failed. He proposed incentives such as long-range Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine and pressured Volodymyr Zelensky to concede territory, then canceled a planned summit with Vladimir Putin when a deal seemed unlikely. Senior administration officials described the conflict as a simple exchange of territory for security guarantees, but Russian objectives run deeper. Moscow rejects a free, independent, militarily capable Ukraine as an unacceptable threat and thus seeks the state's destruction rather than mere territorial adjustments. Any outcome short of total subjugation risks Ukraine rebuilding with Western support, which Moscow finds intolerable.
Read at The Atlantic
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