Putin Says Nyet Again to Trump - WSJ Editorial
Another schlep to Moscow by President Trump’s envoys has produced another Vladimir Putin rejection of another plan to end his war with Ukraine. Maybe it’s time to conclude that Mr. Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants Ukraine.
Kremlin officials called five hours of talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner “constructive,” but also said the root causes of the war still haven’t been addressed. By root causes, the Kremlin means that Ukraine is still free of Russian control.
For months Mr. Putin has refused Mr. Trump’s proposals for even a temporary cease-fire along the current battle lines, which Ukraine accepted. The Administration put Ukraine over a barrel with its 28-point draft peace plan, and Kyiv is trying to discern the worst deal it can tolerate and still survive as a free country.
Where are Mr. Putin’s concessions? The Russian wants to swallow the entire Donbas in Ukraine’s east and deny Ukraine the military and the security allies to protect itself in the future. Mr. Putin wants to look like he’s negotiating, and the Witkoff meetings help him maintain that veneer, while he tries to drive a wedge between Mr. Trump and Europe.
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Mr. Putin won’t negotiate seriously as long as he thinks he has the upper hand, and our hope has been that the White House would eventually figure this out. No such luck so far. A pivot would mean snatching Mr. Putin’s frozen assets; ramping up sanctions to include China; and delivering long-range missiles and other weapons to Ukraine. But the Trump Administration is stuck in a view of Mr. Putin’s motives that is contradicted by events: That commerce and cultural exchange among Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. will be insurance against war.
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