Trump and Zelenskyy: surprise effect wears off

In his classic style, Trump has raised the stakes ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy — now there is a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest (which sounds like a very bad joke), and accordingly, Putin has already heard almost everything that Trump will say to the Ukrainian president today.

This negates the element of surprise that Ukraine wanted to preserve, and may even negate Trump's desire to push the issue of supplying Tomahawk missiles and other weapons — why bother, if Putin is already willing to talk and the U.S. president is confident that he will be able to convince him there?

Read also: On Tomahawks for Kyiv, “Trump's final warning” and its impact on Ukraine war

As I have been saying all week, for Trump, Tomahawk is a negotiating tool that may become unnecessary the moment it starts working. According to this logic, it has already started working, because Putin is allegedly going to negotiations.

Therefore, today's meetings will be twice as difficult, especially in terms of defense.

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About the author. Oleksandr Kraiev, expert at the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by blog authors.