Putin is just playing Trump for time

On Monday, 94 Ukrainian civilians — 23 of them children — learned the hard way how Russian President Vladimir Putin views the ceasefire negotiations in Saudi Arabia between Washington and Moscow. The 94 were injured during a Russian attack that hit a children’s hospital in Sumy.

Putin is using the negotiations with the Trump Administration as a license to kill not only Ukrainian soldiers but also innocent men, women and children, whom he intentionally targets in civilian population centers.

During the attack, 30 other residential high-rises were hit as well as “15 private residences, and an unspecified number of warehouses, offices, and medical facilities.” Sumy, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is about to become ground zero for Putin’s plans to invade the Sumy Oblast.

Putin is primarily using the negotiations in Riyadh to expand his war against Ukraine by other means, including dictating future conditions advantageous to Moscow on the battlefield and as distractions to draw attention away from his build-up of Russian forces for a possible multi-front summer offensive.

Zelensky believes Putin is intent on launching simultaneous efforts to conquer the Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. And to get from here to there, Putin is playing rope-a-dope with Team Trump in Saudi Arabia.

President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, is obliging. In what could only be described as a bizarre interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff parroted Putin’s maximalist talking points one after the other.

Witkoff claimed Ukrainian forces are surrounded in Kursk. They are not. He then claimed, referring to the partial energy infrastructure ceasefire, that he believes, “we have moved Russia in ways that no one thought was possible.” They have not — at least not in any way that is good for Ukraine or for NATO.

Of course, Putin agreed to it. Ukraine has been conducting a series of deep strikes into Russia that are decimating Putin’s oil and energy infrastructure and putting his armies in Kursk and the Donbas at risk of grinding to a halt for lack of fuel. So foolishly, Witkoff helped Russia at the expense of Ukraine. Even more foolishly, Witkoff does not realize Putin has played him for the fool in doing so.

Russia gets a reprieve, and Ukraine is denied one of its most effective deep-fight battle tools to blunt Putin’s ability to finance his war. Not content with pilfering one concession from Witkoff, Team Putin appears close to doing the same in the Black Sea.

Late Monday, according to Reuters, a Russian source told them “that the talks had concluded late on Monday and a draft joint statement had been sent to Moscow and Washington for approval, with the parties aiming to release it on Tuesday.” Once again, Team Trump is on the verge of negotiating away a Ukrainian strength.

Despite having no substantial navy, Ukraine has been able to sink or damage nearly one-third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Essentially, as Basil Germond noted, Putin at the hands of Ukraine “has lost control of the Black Sea.” Now, Team Trump, with Witkoff at the helm, is on the verge of giving it back to Moscow. This would be madness. 

Far worse, however, is Witkoff falling for Putin’s false narrative that NATO expansionism caused the war. Witkoff blindly concedes the point and even more egregiously concedes that “Ukraine cannot be a member of NATO.”

Witkoff isn’t negotiating with Team Putin. He is capitulating to them, right down to letting Putin control all of the peace negotiation narratives.

During his interview with Carlson, Witkoff thoughtlessly bought into Putin’s position that Russia is entitled to all of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts despite not fully controlling any of them. Witkoff even aped Putin’s points that they are “Russian speaking,” and that Moscow’s referendums were proof that “the overwhelming majority ... indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”

Never mind that these were sham referendums, or that many Ukrainians residing there had already fled ahead of the Russian invaders. Team Zelensky, understandably, is irate. Witkoff is hardly acting as an honest broker. To the contrary, at times Witkoff appears to be negotiating on the Kremlin's behalf.

And for what? Many Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians would like to know.

Lost on Team Trump — and lost in particular to Witkoff — is that they keep handing Putin a license to kill Ukrainians. Instead of moving Russia closer to a comprehensive ceasefire, Team Trump is, wittingly or not, setting conditions for Putin and his generals to expand his war in Ukraine. He is not interested in a "piece" of Ukraine. He wants all of it.

It does not help either that Witkoff is star-struck. Telling Carlson that he liked Putin after meeting him is Twilight Zone territory. How do you “like” a man who is intentionally targeting and killing Ukrainian civilians?

As documented by the upcoming Faith Under Siege documentary, more than 22,000 Ukrainian children have been "injured, killed or kidnapped” by Russians. More than 600 churches have been "shelled, looted, or destroyed.” And more than 47 Ukrainian priests, pastors, and other faither leaders have been killed during Putin’s special military operation.

How does Witkoff “like” a man — Putin — who on average is firing “93 ballistic missiles and Iranian drones at Ukrainian cities every day?” Why is Team Trump continuing to give the Russian war machine a carte blanche license to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians?

Putin’s victims have names. Including those of the Bazylevych family. The family of five was reduced to one when Eugenia, 43, Yaryna, 21, Daria, 18, and Emilia, 7, were killed in a Russian missile and drone strike in Lviv. Only their father, Yaroslav Bazylevych, survived this heinous war crime.

It is not enough just to get Putin to the negotiating table. Team Trump must demand that Russia enter into an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, and in doing so put an end to his license to kill and plans to widen the war this summer.

That means empowering Ukraine to take the fight to Putin and getting back on board with shutting down Russia’s shadow fleets, so as to drag him kicking and screaming to a real negotiating table. If not, then more families like the Bazylevych family will keep dying and true peace in Ukraine will be fleeting.

Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan E. Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer.