Trump admits for the first time to Europeans that Putin does not want to end the war – WSJ
US President Donald Trump has told European leaders that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is not ready to end his war against Ukraine because he believes he is winning. Trump told the Europeans in a phone call on May 19, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing three people familiar with the conversation.
"This admission was something European leaders had long believed about Putin, but it was the first time they had heard it from Trump. It was also at odds with what Trump has often said publicly that he believes Putin genuinely wants peace,".
The White House did not comment to the WSJ on this information and referred to Trump's May 19 post about his conversation with Putin: " The tone and spirit of the conversation was great. If it wasn't, I would say so now.".
The WSJ writes that while Trump appears to have realized that Putin is not ready for peace, that has not prompted him to do what Europeans and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy believe he should do: redouble his fight against Russia.
The day before his two-hour conversation with Putin, Trump had a preliminary phone call with European leaders. Then he hinted that he might impose sanctions if Putin refused to abandon the ceasefire, according to journalists familiar with the matter.
However, by May 19, he changed his position again. Instead, Trump said he wanted to quickly start lower-level talks between Russia and Ukraine in the Vatican .
Zelenskiy, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maloni, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participated in the May 19 phone call with Trump. In part, this was the culmination of a European diplomatic offensive that began about 10 days ago to pressure Trump to put pressure on Putin, the WSJ reports.
"Although the effort ultimately failed to help Trump do so through additional sanctions, Europeans saw some positive aspects in it. This process helped everyone, including Trump, to clarify Putin's position: he is unwilling to stop the war at this stage," the article says.
In turn, this process has helped Europeans realize that it is now largely up to them to continue supporting Ukraine. According to WSJ sources, Europeans do not believe that the Trump administration will stop exporting U.S. weapons as long as Europe or Ukraine pays for them.
- on May 19, Trump had a long phone conversation with Putin. It lasted more than two hours.
- Zelenskyy said after the conversation with Trump that Ukraine was not going to withdraw the Armed Forces of Ukraine from four regions, as Putin had previously insisted.
- Trump himself, after the call with the Russian dictator, said that he was ready to "back down" in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia if there was no progress. At the same time, he said that "the tone and spirit of the conversation was excellent.".
