The cliche has been that the ball is now in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s court. Not any longer. Putin has responded to U.S. appeals for a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine with a strong backhand, rejecting a ceasefire in his unprovoked invasion. Now the ball is in President Trump’s court. What will he do?
On” Face the Nation” last Sunday, Ambassador Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said Putin and President Trump will hold a phone call this week. Witkoff said he met in Moscow with Putin for more than three hours. He called it a “positive momentum” that the two presidents will be talking to each other, but gave no indication of where that “momentum” might lead.
Witkoff declined to answer a question by host Margaret Brennan about comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron that Putin is not genuinely seeking peace. He said he didn’t know what Macron had said (easy enough to Google) and so would not comment.
On the same program, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “It’s hard to negotiate an enduring end of a war as long as they’re shooting at each other, and so the president wants a ceasefire. That’s what we’re working on, assuming we can get that done.”
Putin has laid down heavy conditions for a ceasefire and has claimed reaching one might only give Ukraine time to re-arm.