In coming days, we’ll surely hear more details — some of them even true! — about Friday’s Trump-Putin meeting, but the two presidents’ remarks afterward made the state of play pretty clear.
Vladimir Putin really, really wants a deal that will let him come in from the cold — but so far won’t commit to even the bare minimum of concessions, namely that Ukraine must remain securely free.
President Donald Trump heard enough to make him think it’s worth keeping the talks going, which means the Russians at least hinted convincingly that they might bend enough.
But no cease-fire, even a partial one, is close — and a lasting peace deal is even farther off.
Putin’s longwinded remarks about US-Russian friendship were so much wishcasting: He still hopes to romance Trump into giving away the store.
But Trump isn’t close to buying it: Indeed, his last-minute decision to forgo man-on-man discussions in favor of a three-on-three approach that kept Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his side was an unmistakable signal to Putin that’s he’s really going to have to negotiate.
We hope, as Trump surely does, that this leads to peace — but that’s up to Putin: To escape from the mess he’s put himself in, he’s going to have to give.
Perhaps further talks will let him save enough face to admit he needs to give up, irreversibly, on conquering Ukraine.
Only time will tell.