Russian leader’s rejection of latest peace proposal was predictable and shows the Kremlin continues to hold the trump card
Before the harsh white glare of the Kremlin reception room came a telling prologue: Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s self-described “deal guys”, being led by Kremlin officials through the sparkling streets of a festive Moscow.
Wasn’t it lovely, Vladimir Putin asked later, as both sides sat down to a five-hour negotiation that seems to have led right back to where they started. “It’s a magnificent city,” Witkoff replied. Then the cameras cut out.
What followed behind closed doors was not difficult to predict. Despite all the pressure on Ukraine to make concessions that Putin would accept, the assurances from the Trump administration that this was the best chance yet for peace, and the boosterism from envoys such as Witkoff and Kushner, the Ukraine peace deal has stumbled over an intractable, inevitable obstacle: Putin himself.
The road to peace has always led through the Kremlin. That’s not a surprise given that it was Putin who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago that has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions more displaced.
