As talks to end the war begin, Ukraine could pay high price for peace

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As talks to end the war begin, Ukraine could pay high price for peace

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland.

Chris McGrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Almost three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, talks to end the war that has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives are set to begin, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

The White House leader said he spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the phone, and that both leaders said they wanted peace. Trump said he instructed U.S. officials to begin peace talks immediately.

Elaborating on his conversation with Putin, Trump said the heads of state had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” in which they had discussed the war, and noted that the Russian president agreed that it was “common sense” to end the conflict that has caused widescale destruction in Ukraine and led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,”

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Trump said he and Putin agreed to work closely and visit each other’s countries, adding that both men would instruct their respective teams to start negotiations immediately.

Trump said he then spoke to Zelenskyy who, he said, also wanted to “make peace.”

“I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION,” Trump stated

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (second from left) and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (center) attend the NATO Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 12, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Before Trump’s announcement regarding negotiations, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had poured cold water on Ukraine’s hopes of joining military alliance NATO and of regaining lost territories after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea.

“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth told officials from around 50 countries allied to Ukraine in Brussels on Wednesday, according to NBC News reporting.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.

Trump later concurred that it was “probably true” that there was no likelihood of Ukraine joining NATO. He agreed that the odds were slim that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, but said “some of that land will come back” as part of a peace deal.

Before its full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces had invaded the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and then backed and armed pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

After almost three years of wholesale war, Russian forces now occupy around 20% of heavily-fortified territory in the south and east of the country, according to analysts.

Russia ready to ‘work together’

Global market sentiment is certainly likely to be boosted by the distinct (albeit perhaps still distant) prospect that a war that has caused global fractures and instability — disrupting global supply chains, increasing energy prices and subduing consumer and investor confidence — could finally end.

Heavily sanctioned Russia, whose economy has been put on a war footing for the last couple of years, will also be relishing the prospect that it could see sanctions lifted as part of negotiations. Trump’s intervention also gives Putin a diplomatic “off-ramp” and route out of the war without losing face. Russia will have to back-pedal on its adversarial and hostile stance toward the U.S., and Putin’s apparently good relations with Trump could also make that far easier.

The mood in Russia appears to be upbeat, with Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stating Wednesday that Putin had “backed one of the main statements made by the U.S. leader that the time has come for our countries to work together,” Peskov said,

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Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, commented Wednesday that “a single call can change the course of history — today, the leaders of the U.S. and Russia have possibly opened a door to a future shaped by cooperation, not confrontation.”

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and high-profile hawk, commented that the conversation between Trump and Putin was important for the world, coming at a time when it was “teetering on the brink of the Apocalypse” due to hostile relations between Washington and Moscow in recent years.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is waking up to the hard reality that its biggest ally and benefactor, the U.S., could ask the country to pay a high price for peace, forcing it to relinquish its dream of joining NATO — and the security guarantees membership brings — and to potentially concede occupied territory to Russia.

The price of peace?

Officials in Kyiv are nevertheless putting on a brave face for forthcoming talks.

Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries, told CNBC on Thursday that Zelenskyy had stressed to his U.S. counterpart, with whom he has had a checkered relationship, that he had “stressed that there are certain non-negotiable issues for Ukraine, such as our independence, our territorial integrity and our territorial sovereignty.”

“Now we understand very well that certain issues will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve, for example, Ukraine’s membership in the NATO alliance,” Sak told CNBC Thursday. “At the same time, it is very important that both Pete Hegseth as well as Donald Trump reiterated that it is important that Ukraine, as part of this negotiating process, receives substantial and robust security guarantees.”

Sak said Ukraine would “have to be smart in these negotiations” to achieve its goals in the negotiations, which he said would be “unprecedentedly complex.”

“We have signs that our position is understood by our U.S. partners. We hope that the European partners will be involved considerably in this process. The US has important leverages that they can use to force Russia to agree to the terms of just peace. And for now, that’s our objective,” Sak said.

Ukraine’s European allies appear concerned that they could be left on the sidelines as peace talks between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine begin, issuing a statement Wednesday evening saying they would continue to support Kyiv “until a just, comprehensive and lasting peace is reached. A peace that guarantees the interest of Ukraine and our own.”

“We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies. Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations. Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees,”

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from the Weimar+ group, made up of France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and European Commission, noted.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed that sentiment,

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, “All we need is peace. A JUST PEACE. Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER.”

 

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#talks #war #Ukraine #pay #high #price #peace

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