The new bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia offers “immense possibilities in the future”, welcomed Tuesday, March 18, the White House in the reporting press release which detailed the course of the telephone exchange that took place during the day between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The leaders concluded during this two -hour call a verbal agreement to set up a “limited” truce, which will protect energy infrastructure in Ukraine for 30 days. A result however “below Trump hopes”, judges the New York Times In his columns, “after days of optimistic declarations of the White House, according to which peace was at hand”. A proposal for a total truce for 30 days had already been accepted by Ukraine under American pressure.
“Donald Trump is much more eager to reach peace”
After comparing the respective reports published by the United States and Russia, Washington Post In this way comes to an “obvious conclusion”: “President Donald Trump seems much more eager to reach a peace agreement in Ukraine than his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin”. While the first describes “very good and productive” discussions, the second omits praise and is content to expose the terms of this 30-day ceasefire “against energy infrastructure”.
Another conclusion of the American media: the agreement for a partial truce only, even though kyiv had accepted the terms of a truce on all fronts, is the very proof that “Putin has not given up on his desire to dominate kyiv”. And that he “hopes to get negotiations at the table of negotiations what he could not conquer on the battlefield”, while a more complete discussion around the truce conditions will start next Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Because if the agreement is concluded on the principle, the requirements made by Vladimir Putin even before his appeal with Donald Trump was high. The “maximalist position of Putin could force the hand of the American president”, finally judges the Washington Post. At the top of the list, the Kremlin demands “the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the supply of information to kyiv”. The White House had already put any military support on Ukraine on break. But German, French and British heads of state still promised the continuation of military aid on Tuesday.
Vladimir Putin “plays the watch”
Two solutions now in the face of Moscow’s requirements: agreeing to satisfy them and forcing Ukraine to accept the narrative accuser of the Kremlin-for whom kyiv would have “sabotaged and violated” the previous agreements-at the risk of provoking “the anger of Great Britain and France, two of the closest historical allies of the United States”, as the Washington Post. Or put pressure on Vladimir Putin to make concessions, notably waving the spectrum of new sanctions. Because Donald Trump has already given in to several Russian claims, saying that he was ready in particular to speak of territorial “sharing” between Ukraine and Russia, which claims five Ukrainian regions, including Crimea.
Only certain observation for the time being: “Trump’s call with Putin signals a long way to a Russian-Ukraine agreement” title the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The newspaper wonders: should the American president trust his counterpart to establish peace? A few hours after the call, the President of the United States reported to the Washington Examine that he had had unreachable conversations before with Putin during the last month, which he all described as positive.
The call of the two leaders did not prevent Russia, points out the Wsj“to hit the energy network of Sloviansk in the night in eastern Ukraine, questioning Putin’s desire to respect the cease-fire agreed with Trump”.
For the German national daily Der Spiegel“Putin is not in a hurry: he plays the watch”. Because according to the media, “it is of public notoriety that Vladimir Putin has not yet achieved his war objectives in Ukraine. He still seeks to take total control of the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Louhansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson, which he had already declared as part of Russian territory in September 2022”. The Russian agenda would therefore not benefit from a truce established too quickly. A few weeks ago after all, points Der Spiegelthe spokesperson for the Kremlin Dmitri Peskov spoke of the advent of a “new Russia”, extended throughout the east and southern Ukraine, from Odessa to Kharkiv.