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Lots of Ukraine diplomacy, little actual progress

Trump’s meeting with Zelensky and European leaders is just the latest fruitless effort on Ukraine.

By MAX BOOT

Washington Post
August 19, 2025

A flurry of diplomatic activity in the past two weeks was designed to end the war in Ukraine: U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff went to Moscow on Aug. 6 to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin went to Alaska on Friday to meet President Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and various European leaders went to the White House on Monday to meet Trump.

Given all these meetings, accompanied by breathless news coverage focusing on atmospherics (red carpets, black suits), it was easy to imagine that peace is nearly in hand. Certainly Trump seems to think so: He told the Europeans, including the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy, “I believe a peace agreement at the end of all of this is something that’s very attainable, and it can be done in the near future … We will come to a resolution today, I think, on almost everything.”

Count me as skeptical. I see a lot of motion but little real progress. Instead, what I see is a game of one-upmanship, with Putin trying to convince Trump that Zelensky is responsible for the probable failure of talks, while Zelensky and European leaders try to convince Trump that the real culprit is Putin (which he is).