WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump’s high-stakes push to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is teetering on the brink of collapse after he suggested he might withdraw from a planned trilateral summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump’s remarks, which came during an impromptu discussion with reporters Friday morning, represent a dramatic and sudden shift in his stance just as the White House was touting a major diplomatic breakthrough.
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“We’re going to see if Putin and Zelensky are going to be working together. That’s a little bit like oil and vinegar – they don’t get along too well for obvious reasons,” Trump said, hinting at his own withdrawal.
“We’ll also see if I have to be there. I would rather not – I would rather they have a meeting and see how they can do,” Trump added.
The US president expressed deep frustration with the ongoing human cost of the conflict, which he called “stupid” for claiming lives at an extraordinary rate.
“They continue to fight and they continue to kill people, which is stupid, because they are losing 7,000 people on average a week,” he said.
Trump, who has consistently portrayed himself as a master dealmaker, also acknowledged the difficulty of the task.
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“I’ve stopped seven wars. This one I would’ve thought would be in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty – this is turning out to be the most difficult,” he said.
Trump pushes another 2-week deadline, blames Ukraine for strikes
In a further sign of the growing tension, Trump, on Friday afternoon, set another two-week time frame for evaluating the peace talks.
Speaking from the Oval Office Friday afternoon, he told reporters, “I’ll know in two weeks what I’m going to do.”
He added that he expected Putin to agree to a meeting within that timeframe.
Trump added his ultimate decision would be “a very important” one, and that it could include “either massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or do we do nothing and say it’s your fight?”
Trump also took a swipe at Kyiv, expressing his dissatisfaction with Ukraine’s actions in the war. He specifically criticized Ukraine for attacking Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline, saying, “I’m not happy about anything about that war – nothing.”
Asked whether he spoke to Putin after a Russian airstrike that hit a US factory in Ukraine, Trump replied, “I told him I’m not happy about it.”
During the Oval Office announcement on the World Cup 2026 draw to be held at the “Trump-Kennedy Center” in Washington on Dec. 5, 2025, Trump showed a photo of himself and Putin, which he said had been sent to him by the Russian leader, adding, “Maybe he will be here.”
Experts warn of Putin’s deception and geopolitical consequences
Trump’s latest comments arrived amid a wave of conflicting signals from both Moscow and Kyiv, and a sobering assessment from experts on the ground.
Just days before the US president’s remarks, his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had spoken with Putin, and the Russian leader had “agreed to begin the next phase of the peace process.”
This was meant to be a one-on-one meeting between Zelensky and Putin, with a trilateral summit to follow “if necessary.”
However, this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to pour cold water on the idea, stating on behalf of Putin that he had “repeatedly” said he was “ready to meet, including with Mr. Zelensky, with the understanding that all issues… will be well-developed.”
This statement was largely viewed as a way to avoid a firm commitment to a date or a place for the meeting.
Yuriy Boyechko, the CEO of the US-based humanitarian organization Hope for Ukraine, was unsparing in his criticism of the diplomatic dance. Speaking to Kyiv Post on Friday, he said Moscow is now backing out of its promise.
“Putin fooled Trump by promising to meet with Zelensky, but now the Russians are backing out of the meeting,” Boyechko said.
“A major victory for President Trump after his meetings with Putin in Alaska and Zelensky in Washington, DC, was that he convinced Putin to agree to a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky to continue peace talks,” Boyechko added, calling Putin’s move a deception.
“As usual, Putin lied. Unfortunately, Trump believed him and publicly announced that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky would take place by the end of this month.”
Boyechko warned that Putin’s promises should not be trusted.
“If you believe Putin’s promises, you don’t respect yourself – because that man always lies,” he said.
The humanitarian leader called for a stronger, more decisive response from the US.
“President Trump must respond to Putin not with words and empty two-to-three-week deadlines that never materialize, but with strong secondary sanctions and the sale of advanced military equipment, so Ukraine can defend itself while Putin wastes time and rejects peace,” he added.
Retired Colonel: Ukraine’s defeat would end America’s ‘preeminent position’
Retired US Army Colonel Richard Williams, who has extensive experience in NATO leadership, provided a stark warning about the geopolitical consequences of a failed peace effort.
In his interview with Kyiv Post on Friday, Williams questioned whether the “US and EU/NATO watch and allow Putin’s ultimate victory and enslavement of Ukraine?”
Colonel Williams painted a bleak strategic picture: Ukrainian soldiers are “qualitatively… much better,” but they “lack the reserve, long-term depth of their counterparts.” As he put it, Ukraine is up against “Putin’s merciless capacity to lose an Army of 700,000 or more killed in 3 years of fighting!”
Williams emphasized the dire threat a Russian victory poses to the Western alliance.
“NATO’s survival of Ukraine’s defeat is highly questionable!” he warned.
“At the minimum, its capacity for deterrence will be severely undermined, as will that of the EU, which will exist under a deeper and more profound ‘iron curtain’ from Finland to the Black Sea than existed during the Cold War,” he added.
The stakes, according to Colonel Williams, extend far beyond the war itself. He believes that Putin’s calculated indifference to Trump’s peace efforts will ultimately lead to the “degradation and humiliation” of the US president, a personal affront that could serve as the final act in the termination of the US’s “preeminent position in the pantheon of world powers – perhaps indefinitely.”
