As the best American officials prepare for a meeting with a Russian delegation in Saudia Arabia on Sunday, questions have risen about how the Trump administration will push Moscow to extend one for the time being -the -furen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed this week to temporarily stop strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, including the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
State Secretary Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who will both travel to Jeddah for the negotiations, said that the next step will be to protect -fires over the Black Sea.
From Left, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban, Ukrinian Foreignian Andrii Syrii Sybii Yermak Hold A Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 11, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Swimming pool photo via AP)
Moscow had previously agreed to a similar deal that was mediated by Turkey and the United Nations in 2022, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which tried to secure the Ukrainian export of agricultural products to control the worldwide prices, but Putin pulled out of the Agreement in 2023.
Security experts are not convinced of it Putin can be trusted This time.
But there is another problem that apparently will be on the negotiating table in the middle – the nuclear energy of Ukraine.
Since the president’s focus on a mineral deal with Ukraine seems to have decreased, he has aroused his interest in a new business company, US “ownership” of Kyiv’s “Electrical Supply and Nuclear Power Plants”.
“The American ownership of those factories would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for the Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” said a joint explanation released by Rubio and Waltz after Trump’s phone call on Wednesday with Trump Ukrainian President Volodyymyr Zenskyy.
Trump has ‘very good’ call with Zenskyy after deal with Putin
When asked by Fox News Digital how Putin, who has made his interest In the Zaporizhia -Kerncentrale, the new ambitions of Trump will respond, Rebekah Koffler, a former Dia Intelligence Officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook”, said she doesn’t think it will go well.
“Putin is almost certainly not in favor of this idea and will try to sabotage such a deal,” said Koffler, who informed NATO officials of Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine years before the 2022 invasion. “Moreover, it is unlikely that Zenskyy will also sign such a deal.
“Zenskyy would probably agree to hand over control of the Zaporizhia -core center to the US, which is currently under Russian control. The Russians will not voluntarily give up control of Zaporizhia. If someone tries to take it with violence, they will fight against the bitter end.”
Made an infographic in Ankara, Turkey, 12 August 2024. (Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty images)
It is unclear when Trump’s interest in acquiring the energy infrastructure of Ukraine began, although it seems to make his earlier claims that Ukraine will be better protected if American employees and companies are active within his limits.
The basis of this argument has been discussed because there, and remain, American companies active In Ukraine during the invasion of Russia. The debate contributed to an Oval Office Blowup between Trump and Zenskyy last month.
Koffler said that Putin could consider an American acquisition of the four nuclear power stations of KYIV as a “back door way” for the US to expand some of Ukraine security guarantees and a “smart way to control the nuclear power of Ukraine, the Russians think they can be militarized.”
What is the next step in the Russia, Ukraine -strikes -furen conversations?
“It would be seen as a threat to Russia,” said Koffler.
When asked how the American ownership of the energy infrastructure of Ukraine could influence the negotiations, former Cia Moscow station chief Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital that he is not convinced that it will have much influence on actually guaranteeing peace.
“Show me the deal. We don’t have a deal yet. We have a ceasefire -the fire that has been broken on energy -infrastructure,” Hoffman noted. He noted that even after Putin agreed to stop attacking the Ukraine infrastructure on Tuesday, a drone strike hit the next morning Railway power system In the Dnipropetrovsk region, which led to civil power outages.
President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 top in Osaka, Japan, 28 June 2019. (Kremlin Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty images)
“It’s just another point of discussion. There are so many other issues that are of much greater importance. What Putin would probably do for his negotiating strategy is to say:” Oh, yes, I will let you do that United States of America, but I want this in exchange for that. “
“He wants Ukraine. He wants to Put the government. That is his objective, “Hoffman added.” What he agrees in the short term, what he really wants to do is the ability of Ukraine to scare Russia in the future and to give Russia to the maximum.
“At the moment he can negotiate what he cannot get on the battlefield.”
Although a number of problems will be discussed, the former CIA Moscow station chef said that the real key in reaching any form of ceases -the -fires will have to be an authentic signal from Putin that he actually wants the war to end.
“The big question that John Ratcliffe has to answer is explained to me why Putin wants a cessation -the fires. I would claim he doesn’t,” said Hoffman in reference to the director of the CIA. “There is no indication that he wants one.
Ukrainian soldiers fire with a French self-driving 155 mm/52-caliber gun Caesar to Russian positions in a front line in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 15, 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty images)
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“If he wanted to stop the war and kill his own people and stopped spilling so much blood and treasure, he would have stopped,” Hoffman argued.
In the end, Hoffman said, when I looked at how most big wars have been completed, history suggests that the war in Ukraine can only really end up on the battlefield.
“One side loses, one side wins, or both parties do not have the means to fight,” said Hoffman. “That’s how the wars end.”
