הפגישה המתוחה בין טראמפ לזלנסקי — האם המשא ומתן יחודש? | פרשנות

Joining us now to discuss the tense meeting today between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is political strategist Gerard Felitti. He's also a foreign affairs analyst and attorney specializing in international law. Gerard, thank you so much for joining us. Good to see you again. Now, today's meeting ended without a deal with President Trump calling Zelensky disrespectful and reiterating that Ukraine has no cards in peace negotiations. What's your takeaway from today's meeting? Today's meeting, as it was publicized, is something I think many Americans have not seen before. This was unprecedented, and especially when you hear that the Trump administration asked Zelensky to leave the White House after that confrontation. What we saw was an inability by President Zelensky to understand that he needs to compromise. The fact that he was discussing no compromises while Trump was repeatedly talking about the need to solve the problem, to be a mediator, shows that this is not something that can happen at this time. Zelensky still needs to come to the table, but that's not what happened today. So we don't have that mineral deal. We don't have that security guarantee of any kind. We have the war continuing, and Zelensky really has a lot of ground to make up. President Trump posted on Truth Social after the meeting saying, quote, I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage. I want peace. He disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace. How do you read Trump's statement here? I read this as a very accurate reflection of what happened. The lead of the room was that President Zelensky feels that he has more to gain by continuing getting support from the West than by sitting down to negotiate an end to the war. And we have to remember the Biden administration did him no favors. We gave him just enough arms and weapons to stay in the fight, but not enough to actually win or make significant progress. So this gave him the illusion that America would continue supporting him in the fight, when in reality there needs to come an end to this war. So until Zelensky realizes that there needs to be compromise, that there needs to be an end to this, we're likely to continue seeing this war. But I think everyone is getting tired of the vast devastation, the human tragedy that's occurring, and Zelensky will be back and this deal will be negotiated. On that note, what is next for U.S.-Ukraine relations? Are things irreparable at this point or what needs to happen? I don't think they're irreparable. I think it's a good sign that Zelensky did not just fly home, that he did go on bread and have that conversation with him. I think we will see over this evening and tomorrow more attempts to kind of walk back his comments, still standing by them to the extent that Russia was the aggressor, but showing more of a willingness, more of a contrition and understanding that he does eventually want to come back to the table. I think the relationship is not harmed, but Zelensky has a lot of damage control to do in the next few days.