Key Points – Following a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin on Monday, May 19th, President Trump announced that terms for ending the Ukraine war must be negotiated directly between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting the Vatican as a potential host.
-This statement signals a notable shift from Trump’s earlier ambitions to personally broker a deal.
-Some analysts, like CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, interpret this as Putin demonstrating he does not need direct US mediation and that Washington stepping back aligns with Moscow’s strategic interests.
-Trump also indicated a desire for future US-Russia trade once the conflict concludes.
Trump Has a Ukraine War Challenge He Can’t Easily Fix
For nearly a decade, a great deal of attention has been paid to the relationship between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
No, the most lurid conspiracy theories of the early Trump era are not true. Trump is not a Russian agent, nor was the “Pee Tape” real.
That said, Trump has long had an attachment to and admiration for one of the world’s worst despots, and had much closer business ties to Russia, in his pre-presidency life, than he acknowledged.
Also, Russia very clearly did all it could to try to help Trump win in 2016, although whether Russia’s interference was that large a factor in helping Trump to win is much more debatable. Their relationship seems to have a lot to do with Trump’s longtime admiration for dictators and strongmen.
And continuing into his second term, Trump has been much more solicitous of Putin than has typically been the case for most presidents, including his efforts to end the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in early 2022. Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance famously upbraided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a White House meeting earlier this year.
Trump had promised, during last year’s campaign, to end that war on his first day in office, but it continues. And even a recent phone call between Trump and his Russian counterpart failed to make much progress.
A Not-So-Perfect Phone Call
On Monday, as reported by The BBC and other outlets, Trump and Putin spoke on the phone for two hours. After the call, Trump said that the terms of an end to the war could only be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine.
“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said in a statement after the call with Putin. “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”
Trump added that he would like to pursue trade with Russia, and presumably lift sanctions, once the war has ended, and that the Vatican has expressed interest in hosting the peace negotiations.
In addition, the U.S. stepping away from negotiations would presumably also mean an end to U.S. aid to the Ukrainian war effort, which was put into place by the Biden Administration, and well as other Western countries after the initial invasion.
Does Putin Need Trump?
CNN published an analysis, after the call, with the headline “Putin just showed Trump how little he needs him.”
“Unbothered, taking this most consequential of calls at a music school on the Sochi coast, the Kremlin head has returned to the start – to his false narrative about this war of choice being sparked by NATO expanding too fast,” Nick Paton Walsh wrote for CNN.
He also noted that Vice President Vance had declared “it is not our war,” and threatened to pull back from both the peace talks and from helping Ukraine.
“Washington backing off is exactly what Russia yearns for, and to earn this dream outcome, it seems Putin has to do absolutely nothing, bar continue to wage a brutal war,” the CNN analysis added.
“Moments after the call, Trump already sounded like a man stepping back from the fray. Five days earlier he had been the febrile intermediary, the peacemaker willing to bridge the enmity between Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for a meeting in Turkey,” CNN wrote. “But after his Monday call with Putin, he simply said Ukraine and Russia must talk directly, ‘as only they can.’ He even passed the task to the home of the new American Pope, the Vatican, as a possible venue. The United States may not be out of the process entirely, but it talks like it wants someone else to lead it.”
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter
Swamplaw Yankee
May 21, 2025 at 5:43 am
This author is so polite. The reality is that the MAGA elite cabal has lost the leadership of the Free WEST! Trump has self-slithered his way out of the intangible position of Chief Magistrate of the WEST. Trump has abdicated and pretends not to care. This must be seen as his painful self-recognition that he knows that he is not adroit, on the ball to run the ball for the WEST.
The Ukraine massacre is the direct result of the 2014 betrayal of the WEST by the Obama Democrat Cabal. Biden and Obama, et al, colluded to unilaterally gift the orc Putin the ancient Ukrainian soil of Crimea and land of Ukrainian families.
Trump may return to bluff and bluster on internal issues to entertain the MAGA Dandy. Trump can never return now to the international forum. These self induced histrionics have forced him off the boards. A common sex trader has out played Trump at a card game that he himself was the dealer.
Ukraine is a thousand year old battle of Ukrainians protecting themselves from genocide by the peasant russian genetic group. The planned death of 20 plus million Ukrainians by fake soviet imposters, but real russian butchers is the prime gem that Trump ignored so studiously.
So sad. Trump may still want to do some fiddleing on the main stage, but his time is gone by his own self-kaput. -30-