August 19, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his latest exchange with Donald Trump, has declared himself “ready” to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On the surface, it looks like a gesture of openness. In reality, it is a familiar Kremlin tactic: to project willingness for dialogue while keeping control over the format, timing, and meaning of any future encounter.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov admitted as much, framing the discussion around “raising the level” of Russian and Ukrainian participation in talks – diplomatic code for Moscow’s demand to shape the agenda and cast itself as a co-equal arbiter rather than an aggressor. By linking the initiative directly to Trump, Putin underscores that the road to Zelensky still runs through Washington, not Kyiv.
Trump, meanwhile, eagerly confirmed that preparations are “underway” for a possible meeting, offering another reminder of his role as self-appointed broker in Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II. Yet the deeper irony is hard to miss: the Kremlin has never lacked for channels to speak with Ukraine. What it has lacked is the will to treat Kyiv as an independent equal rather than a dependent province to be negotiated over.
Putin’s statement should not be mistaken for a breakthrough. It is, at best, a public-relations maneuver timed for maximum visibility in the aftermath of Trump’s latest diplomatic theater. At worst, it is another attempt to reframe Russia’s war of aggression as a dispute requiring Western mediation, diluting Ukraine’s agency in the process.
The question now is whether Zelensky will be pressured into yet another “photo-op peace initiative” that benefits Moscow more than Kyiv. If history is any guide, Putin’s readiness to meet is less about ending the war — and more about controlling the narrative of it.
