Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke on the telephone for more than an hour and a half on Tuesday, March 18. According to the Kremlin’s readout, shared on Telegram, the Russian and American leaders “continued a detailed and candid exchange of views on the situation surrounding Ukraine,” with Putin thanking Trump “for his efforts to contribute to the noble goal of ending hostilities and preventing further loss of life.” Moscow repeated that any settlement must address “the root causes of the crisis” and “Russia’s legitimate security interests” in Ukraine. The most immediate result of the conversation appears to be Putin’s agreement to a “mutual 30-day suspension of strikes on energy infrastructure.”
The hell, infrastructure strikes are how Ukraine is dealing the most damage to Russia. Was Ukraine even involved in this decision?
No. And I very much doubt they’ll agree to it seeing as trump already threw away all his leverage over them. They have no reason to listen to anything America has to say anymore
They were not. The US is pointedly excluding the party being invaded by Russia. This summit was about how to cut up the cake.
This is a return to “spheres of influence”. Until the dawn of the nuclear age, this geopolitical mentality was the status quo ante. I don’t think anyone really knows what reviving that in the modern context will ultimately yield, because it kinda hasn’t been done in about 70-80 years.