Ukraine’s Allies Are Leaning on Zelenskiy for a Way to End the War

Donald Trump will return to the White House in January pledging a quick end to the war. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Putin to engage in peace talks during a phone call on Friday. France’s Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that he’ll speak to the Russian leader when the time is right.

Two European officials said there is an increasingly recognition that Zelenskiy will have to compromise with Putin because it has become clear that neither side can secure a decisive victory.

On the eve of the G-20, which will be President Joe Biden’s last in office, the US decided to authorize long-range missile strikes on Russian territory. The idea behind that shift is that it will help bolster Zelenskiy’s position before Trump takes office so that he can approach eventual negotiations with a strengthened hand.

Allowing Ukrainians to use those Western-made weapons — known as Army Tactical Missile Systems — would mark a serious escalation, but it’s unlikely to dramatically change the course of the conflict, according to Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a privately owned defense think tank. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the latest NATO member to want to get in on the discussion. He’s set to present his proposal to freeze the conflict on current lines when Group of 20 leaders meet in Rio de Janeiro Monday, according to people familiar with his plans. The sudden clamor for a settlement shows the renewed urgency from Ukraine’s allies who are trying to get ahead of Trump’s return and the possibility of drastic cuts in US support. With North Korean troops entering the fray on the Russian side, there is growing appetite to halt a conflict which has brought destruction to vast tracts of Ukraine, consumed hundreds of billions of dollars in financial aid and foreign weapons and upended geopolitical relationships in Europe and around the world.

Only Trump can negotiate peace in Ukraine, aide says

United States President-elect Donald Trump is the only one who can help negotiate a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, his presidential transition team communications director Stephen Cheung told CNN. According to Cheung, only Trump will be able to bring together both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table and stop the killing in the war-torn country. Shortly after several media outlets reported that the US, France, and the United Kingdom decided to allow Kiev to use their long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia, an unnamed representative of Trump’s transition team stated that the President-elect may reconsider Biden’s decision once in office.