Trump Vs Zelenskyy Vs Putin Vs Europe: Everybody Wants Ukraine Peace, But No One Knows How To Get There

Last Updated:March 04, 2025, 11:49 IST

Tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy have complicated Ukraine's peace efforts, with US military aid now axed. Meanwhile, Europe is also working on a peace plan, but what's the road ahead?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Donald Trump (L)/Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) (Photos: Reuters)

With the Russia-Ukraine peace plan on the agenda, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, days after the Oval Office row with US President Donald Trump, now has a few options left.

The heated conversation between him and Trump, played out live on television, has somewhat shifted the focus to the ties between the two countries. Many now believe that Ukraine’s peace plan could also largely depend on the country’s ties with the United States.

Though Zelenskyy expressed optimism about continued US support, and maintained his cool in public appearances since the episode unfolded, officials in America have expressed they want an apology from the Ukrainian President.

In all, Trump, Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Europe, all are harping for a peace deal, but what’s the roadmap?

TRUMP’s PROMISES ON PEACE DEAL, AND THE WORK DONE

While he campaigned for the US elections, Trump, in 2024, repeatedly pledged to end the (then nearly) three-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of his January 20 inauguration. However, Putin had shown no readiness to drop his conditions for a truce and talks.

Questions over Trump’s connections to Putin followed him into his first presidency and hung over him for most of his term, spurring investigations by the Justice Department and Congress and the appointment of a special counsel who brought criminal charges against multiple Trump allies.

While running for office, Trump cast doubt on the idea that Russian government hackers had stolen the emails of Democrats, including his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, and orchestrated their public release in an effort to boost his candidacy and harm hers.

Then, as President, he broke with his own intelligence community’s firm finding that Russia and Russia alone was to blame for the hack.

If Trump’s history with Russia appears to have contributed to his worldview of the current conflict, so too has his past with Ukraine. He held a call in 2019 with Zelenskyy and pushed him to investigate corruption allegations against Democratic rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter ahead of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden went on to win.

Now, after an unprecedented showdown with Zelenskyy, Trump has suspended the delivery of all American military aid to Ukraine. According to a report with The New York Times, a senior administrative official said the decision could affect “more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order".

The official also said the order would be in effect unless Trump determined that Ukraine had demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia.

According to the US State Department, Washington has to date provided USD 65.9 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately USD 69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

ZELENSKYY WANTS UKRAINE PEACE THE MOST

After the heated exchange, Zelensky drove off in his motorcade shortly after having been asked to leave, without holding a planned joint press conference. The resources deal was left unsigned, the White House said.

Despite the fallout, Zelenskyy has expressed an urgency to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible. He also said his country is working with the United States and European partners and hopes for the US’s support for peace.

However, he rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, stating that it would be a “failure for everyone" if hostilities ended without clear security guarantees in place. Later, he told the Associated Press that the end of the Russia-Ukraine war could still be “far, far away“, a remark which drew criticism from Trump.

In a post on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, Trump said it was “the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!"

ALSO READ | Hours Before Oval Office Spat, US Senator Warned Zelenskyy Not To ‘Take The Bait’

EUROPE COMES INTO THE PICTURE

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said European leaders had agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to present to the United States, a vital step for Washington to be able to offer security guarantees that Kyiv says are essential to deter Russia.

At a summit in London just two days after Zelenskyy clashed with Trump and cut short a visit to Washington, European leaders offered a strong show of support to the Ukrainian President and promised to do more to help his nation.

Later, it was announced that Britain and France would work on a peace deal with Ukraine and present it to Donald Trump, while Starmer described it as a step in the right direction.

The coalition that Starmer announced appears to have as its first task the formation of a plan to end the war in Ukraine that offers security guarantees to Kyiv but is palatable to Trump – who has made it clear that the US or NATO will not offer any such security umbrella.

However, it remains unclear whether Starmer also meant that the coalition would take charge of implementing future security guarantees or whether member states would put boots on the ground in Ukraine for this.

It should be noted that in 1999, an Australia-led Force East Timor (INTERFET) under a United Nations mandate, the UK and New Zealand landed in East Timor. This marked the first time the UN greenlit a peace mission by a coalition of the willing.

Later, in 2003, 30 countries in some capacity provided support to former US President George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, which did not have a UN mandate. These countries contributed to the invasion forces, which totalled about 160,000 soldiers. The UK contributed 45,000, and Australia sent about 2,000. The number of countries in the coalition grew to 38 after the invasion.

While the coalition can come up with a peace plan, both Zelenskyy and Starmer have acknowledged that they need US backing for the execution of a potential peace plan.

ALSO READ | Fractures In Europe Over UK-France Ukraine Peace Plan Amid US Rift

PUTIN INDICATES HE WANTS WAR TO END, BUT IS THERE A ROADWAY?

As Trump pushes for “a deal" to end the war in Ukraine, he said, he was convinced, after a call, that Putin wants to end the war.

“I think he wants to stop fighting. I see that. We spoke long and hard," Trump said.

Despite the casualties in Ukraine, as reported by several media reports, Russia has consistently denied targeting civilian infrastructure. Several Ukrainian civilians were even killed on Friday, as Trump and Zelenskyy prepared for and held their disastrous meeting at the White House.

Earlier this month, Trump sent a delegation of American diplomats to meet their Russian counterparts for peace talks in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine was not invited to the summit. The meeting lasted more than four hours and was described by a member of Moscow’s negotiating team as “positive".

And while Trump seemed to suggest Putin is ready to negotiate, the Russian leader has been busy reiterating demands that have long been unacceptable to Kyiv. According to a report with CNN, Putin has repeatedly made his goals clear – He wants to gain control over the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as hold onto the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, Trump and his officials have said that it is unlikely Ukraine will be able to get back much of its pre-war territory, with the President even going as far as suggesting that Ukraine “may be Russian someday".

OTHER NATIONS ALSO WANT AN END TO THE UKRAINE WAR

Amid the peace negotiations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will embark on a six-day visit to the UK and Ireland beginning Tuesday. Though his meeting will primarily focus on ways to further boost bilateral cooperation, his discussions are likely to include a range of regional and global issues.

It would be interesting to see whether Jaishankar and his British counterpart David Lammy discuss the Ukraine conflict as their meeting comes against the backdrop of the heated exchanges between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Last month, in a strong message on the Russia-Ukraine war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India stands with peace, thus appreciating Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the war. His message came during a meeting with the US President at the White House, while the former was on a visit to the United States.

“India is not neutral. India is siding with peace. I have already said to President Putin that this is not the era of war. I support the efforts taken by President Trump," Prime Minister Modi said.

Just a day before, Trump had held separate phone calls with Putin and Zelenskyy.

Since the Ukraine conflict began in February 2022, PM Modi has also spoken to Putin as well as Zelenskyy a number of times.

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