US President Donald Trump’s administration officials met with Russian representatives in Riyadh on two days ago, focusing on reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties between the United States and Russia. They notably excluded Ukraine from the discussions, despite the country’s future being central to negotiations.
According to Bloomberg Opinion columnist Marc Champion, Trump’s approach to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine should be viewed through a different lens – not as negotiating a settlement for Ukraine, but rather using Ukraine as “the most valuable card” in his broader goal of resetting relations with Russia.
“The president’s approach makes US actions more logical, but no less shameful,” Champion notes.
This perspective helps explain why Ukraine and EU representatives were absent from the meeting between Russian officials and the Trump administration, Champion argues.
Trump has no plan for peace negotiations and it won’t work, says Danish military analyst
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the Riyadh meeting that the two sides had agreed to reestablish diplomatic and economic ties, and to form negotiating teams to start discussing Ukraine afterward. Rubio emphasized the “incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly, economically” that ending the war would create.
Also present at the Riyadh meeting was Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian sovereign wealth fund director described as Putin’s point man on energy investments. Dmitriev told reporters that Trump is a “great problem solver” and framed the was as costing the US $300 billion in Russian business. Dmitriev predicted US companies could return to Russia as early as the second quarter of this year. The Yale School of Management’s CELI list indicates 457 American firms were doing business in Russia at the start of Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, with most having since suspended operations or withdrawn.
While negotiations proceed, Kyiv is reportedly under pressure from the US to accept Trump’s demand to sign over 50% of all revenue from Ukraine’s mineral resources, ports and other infrastructure in perpetuity as recompense for US military aid. Champion characterizes these as “the kinds of terms that victors impose on defeated enemies as war reparations.”
Trump has also called for wartime elections in Ukraine, aligned with the Kremlin’s demand for “denazification,” and has taken to calling President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” despite Zelenskyy maintaining around 55% approval ratings.
Champion disputes Trump’s claims about US aid to Ukraine, noting that according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the US has allocated €114 billion ($119 billion) through the end of 2024, not the $350 billion Trump claimed on Truth Social. The EU has consistently outspent the US in total aid to Ukraine, and as a proportion of GDP, the US ranks 15th among Ukraine’s top 20 wartime donors.
Champion concludes that while Trump could potentially extract a fair deal for Ukraine as part of his reset with Russia, nothing the US president has said or done to date gives confidence this will happen. Instead, he suggests we may be seeing a deal unfold “that will be cut at [Ukraine and Europe’s future stability’s] expense by two supremely cynical leaders, both of whom see the weak as targets to exploit and the strong as the only people worth negotiating with.”
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- Trump has no plan for peace negotiations and it won’t work, says Danish military analyst
