Where do Peace Talks Between Russia and Ukraine Stand?

0:00Today on State of the World, where do Ukraine-Russia peace talks stand?

0:09NPR correspondent in Moscow:You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, August 26th. I'm Greg Dixon. President Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, he undertook a flurry of diplomatic activity toward that goal, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, along with a number of European leaders. But after that swirl of activity, is peace any closer? In today's episode, we're going to hear two voices on that topic. First up is NPR's Moscow correspondent Charles Maines.

0:49NPR correspondent in Moscow:He spoke to Steve Inskip. So when you evaluate everything that's happened, has there been any measurable progress toward peace? Well, you know, critics would say that Putin got a literal red carpet reception in Alaska and Trump got nothing in return. No ceasefire deal, no immediate concessions from Putin, all while backing off of threats of new sanctions. And yet there were these hints by Trump and Putin in Alaska that a deal was in the offing. A key to that, Trump and his team said Putin had agreed to some form of Western security guarantees for Ukraine. if robust enough, and others with the U.S.

1:22NPR correspondent in Moscow:backing. The thinking here was that those protections could unlock a more sensitive issue for Ukraine, whether to accept territorial concessions as part of any peace deal as Moscow is demanding. So, you know, in that line, Trump's gambit looked at least possible, even more so after Trump said Putin had agreed to meet with Zelensky and possibly Trump himself to finally hash out the terms. Or so it seemed. It all seemed to hit a wall, a brick Kremlin wall, to be specific. I've been following this a little bit. It seems the Kremlin has reworded what they supposedly agreed to. What are their objections?

1:54NPR correspondent in Moscow:Well, you know, Russia's official line is that it supports Trump's peace efforts, but Moscow has repeatedly sought to slow them down, including this meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was on NBC's Meet the Press this weekend. Let's listen. Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all. Now, Steve, Lavrov also rejected several proposals for Western security guarantees for Ukraine, for example, the presence of a European peacekeeping force, because Lavrov insists Russia should be part of any group providing security to Ukraine.

2:33NPR correspondent in Moscow:That did not go over well in Kiev, and that's now up to the U.S. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in particular to try and come up with some other solutions that will satisfy all sides. What is Putin saying? Well, he hasn't really talked about the Ukraine peace deal since Alaska. Instead, he's praised Trump, as he did during a recent visit to a nuclear research facility last week. Let's listen.

2:57NPR correspondent in Moscow:So here Putin says that ever since Trump's return to the White House, he's seen a light at the end of the tunnel in restoring relations with Washington, adding the two sides were already discussing joint projects in the Arctic and Alaska. And this has really been the Russian playbook when it comes to Trump, offering the prospect of lucrative deals or progress on bilateral issues like arms control, rather than hinging the relationship on whether or not there's peace in Ukraine. Because fundamentally, Russia sees Trump as wanting to end the war, but not so concerned about the fine print, for example, where boundaries are ultimately drawn, that he would reject deals elsewhere.

3:32NPR correspondent in Moscow:And that's something Moscow thinks it can play to its advantage as these negotiations and the war drag on. I'm just listening to your words there, Charles, quoting Putin, that Putin sees a light at the end of the tunnel in restoring relations with Washington as opposed to bringing peace to Ukraine. Different goals. Absolutely different goals. And it seems that he's trying to bifurcate the two. NPR's Charles Maines, thanks so much. Thank you. For more on President Trump's efforts towards peace, we're going to hear now from David Sanger. He's a longtime White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

4:03NPR correspondent in Moscow:And he recently wrote about Trump's, quote, strategic incoherence when it comes to diplomacy over the war in Ukraine. He spoke to A. Martinez. What do you think it is about President Trump that maybe he doesn't want to either understand or refuse to accept about Vladimir Putin's resolve when it comes to Ukraine?

4:22national security correspondent from the New York Times:Well, I think the place where it starts is that the president says that Putin is seeking peace. He may ultimately want peace, but I don't think he wants peace necessarily on the same timeline that the president has in mind here. Because at this point, delay works to his advantage. He feels as if his troops were advancing, that there's no reason to give up now. But the strategic incoherence goes deeper than that. The fundamental problem is that the administration keeps changing the way it discusses the United States' role in this. Sometimes you hear President Trump and J.D. Vance, the vice president, talk about the U.S.

5:08national security correspondent from the New York Times:as a mediator. In other words, they're first talking to Putin, then they're talking to Zelensky, then they're trying to come up with some ideas in between, the sort of traditional diplomacy. At other moments, you hear the president say, well, the United States would join in the security arrangements for Ukraine or would continue some kind of military support for Ukraine, even if it's through the Europeans, in which case the U.S. is contributing to Ukraine's side. And at other moments, of course, we've heard the president repeat the Russian talking points. So could it be that Vladimir Putin sees what the United States or how they're handling it and saying, hey, they don't seem to have their act together, so I can wait this out?

5:52national security correspondent from the New York Times:Or they don't really know what they want. They just want a solution that would get the president to his ultimate goal here, which he's declared is win a Nobel Peace Prize. And, you know, in the story, I said, you know, there's kind of a model here for the president. It's what Teddy Roosevelt did 120 years ago this week in the Russo-Japanese War, where he did, in fact, play mediator in that particular case because the U.S. didn't have the kind of interest it has right now in Ukraine and in Ukraine at least holding on as an independent state. And he did win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, the next year.

6:37national security correspondent from the New York Times:David, you've written that Trump leans on leader-to-leader charm. Why do you think that doesn't seem to work with Vladimir Putin? Well, it's not just Putin it doesn't work with. You know, Putin's pretty good at this. And obviously, former KGB agent, you've heard the whole bit. He knows how to go play President Trump and other leaders. But think back to the closest model in this in the first Trump term. It was President Trump's relationship with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who he continued to praise yesterday while sitting in the Oval Office with the president of South Korea. And he talked about what a great relationship he had with Kim Jong-un.

7:19Well, it's terrific that they've got a good relationship, but what did that alone get him?

7:25national security correspondent from the New York Times:He went and met him in Singapore, said we're on the way to disarming North Korea. Within six months, they would begin giving up nuclear weapons. They never gave up a single nuclear weapon. And then they built more than they've ever had before. That's David Sanger of The New York Times. David, thanks. Thank you.

7:49NPR correspondent in Moscow:And that's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.