Putin goes from pariah to negotiating partner as Trump announces plans to meet

For a decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the West’s pariah after first annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and then launching a full-scale invasion of the country. Now, President Donald Trump has given Putin a big boost— and possibly re-entry onto the global stage — by offering him much of what he’s been asking for in Ukraine.

While Trump has made no secret that he planned a radical departure from Joe Biden’s goal of an ostensible outright Ukrainian victory, his comments Wednesday — including that Russia “fought for that land and they lost a lot of soldiers” — startled observers, and apparently governments, across Europe.

“Trump has given Ukraine to Putin,” former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wrote on X. And Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who is attending this week’s Munich Security Conference, asked why the Trump administration was “giving Putin gifts — Ukrainian land and no NATO membership for Ukraine — before negotiations even begin.”

He added: “I’ve negotiated with the Russians. You never give up anything to them for free.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put on a brave face in his response — as many observers say he has little choice but to do when it comes to Washington, Ukraine’s biggest benefactor — saying that while Trump’s phone call with Putin on Wednesday was “not pleasant,” he still trusted Trump’s assertion that Moscow was not being given priority.

But make no mistake, Trump’s comments will be very badly received in Kyiv, according to Orysia Lutsevych, a director at Chatham House, a London think tank.

The remarks “show the U.S.’ weakness, as it caters to Putin’s wishes without Russia having to compromise or concede anything,” she told NBC News. “Putin’s bluff that he is ‘winning’ seems to be working with Trump.” 

While Russia has made slow gains on the battlefield in the last year, it still commands roughly the same 20% of Ukrainian land that it did 12 months ago. In addition, Ukrainian forces still hold a sliver of Russian territory.

European powers are also typically measured in their statements to the White House. But they expressed clear anxiety that Trump might be negotiating with Putin while leaving both them and Zelenskyy out of the conversation.

“Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations,” France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement. It did not mention Trump by name, but its meaning was unambiguous. “We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies.”

Asked about the criticisms of Trump’s Ukraine strategy, Brian Hughes, a National Security Council spokesman, said in an emailed statement that Trump “inherited a world on fire thanks to a generation of so-called experts from the foreign policy establishment.”

The president was “quickly reversing their terrible mistakes, and America is once again the dominant force for peace and stability,” he said. He wrote that Trump’s “America First diplomacy is paying real dividends for Americans and for peace-loving people across the globe.”

Though American allies knew a stark new era was coming under Trump, the speed and frankness of his words and actions this week have stunned even seasoned observers of the conflict.

On Wednesday, Trump had a call with Putin — before making a call to Zelenskyy — in which he appeared to offer up many of the Kremlin’s demands with little in return.

“We had a great call,” Trump said in the Oval Office. He said he was “OK” with Ukraine not getting NATO membership and that it was “unlikely” it would get back territory invaded by Russia.

“I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace, and I want peace,” he said. “I just want to see people stop getting killed.”

Trump also said he and Putin may meet in Saudi Arabia on an unspecified date.

Nevertheless, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s counter-disinformation center, was adamant that his country “will not be left out of the negotiations under any circumstances.”

He told NBC News that “Ukraine and the United States have a substantive dialogue” and that it was “important not to let Putin manipulate” the process.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that American troops would not be part of any peacekeeping mission sent to Ukraine, telling Europe that it would be expected to front up resources.

Biden and other presidents had fudged the issue of Ukraine’s NATO membership, knowing that would inflame the already hostile relations with Moscow. But Trump took it off the table outright.

“Maybe Ukraine will have to give up territory. Maybe Ukraine will not join NATO now. Maybe U.S. soldiers will not be part of a peacekeeping mission,” McFaul wrote. “But all of these concessions to Putin should be negotiated in return for Russian concessions that advance Ukraine and America.”