Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker told Newsmax that Russian President Vladimir Putin walked away from Friday’s summit with President Donald Trump having achieved his goal: buying more time without facing new consequences.
Appearing during special coverage of the historic meeting, Volker said: “Putin got what he came for. He bought time. He did not agree to a ceasefire. He did not even agree to a meeting with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.”
Instead, Volker said, Putin “kicked everything down the road and is going home happy,” having avoided secondary sanctions, tariffs, or fresh pressure from the United States.
In a press conference with Putin after their talks, Trump said that he had an “extremely productive” meeting with Putin in their hourslong summit to try to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said a framework was in place for a peace deal to end the more than 3-year-old war, “but there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
“Our allies are probably relieved,” Volker said. “They were worried that Trump was going to promise to force Ukraine to give away territory — something he couldn’t even do. But he didn’t make any promises he couldn’t keep.
“He was clearly disappointed, clearly frustrated that he didn’t get the ceasefire that he wanted. But he also didn’t make any promises he couldn’t keep.”
In the end, Volker said, Putin has to “actually want” a ceasefire.
“He needs to feel that he needs it for his own interests. That should be because of the military losses, and it should be because of the pain on the Russian economy, particularly the state budget and their ability to finance the war,” he said.
“At the moment, Putin does not feel either one of those. So he is stringing this along and not making any real moves.”
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