Where Trump sees a deal, Putin sees a win for Russia

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/21/world/trump-putin-deal-analysis-latam-intl

If only Donald Trump were President of Russia, he would surely agree a quick and easy deal to end the brutal Ukraine war, even – he might suggest – in as little as 24 hours.

But, of course, Trump is not the President of Russia. That would be President Vladimir Putin, and the actual Kremlin strongman appears to have very little interest in compromising his stated war aims in Ukraine, either for the sake of Russian and Ukrainian lives or even for billions of dollars more in his state coffers.

It is a fundamental misunderstanding that has driven the Trump administration’s fruitless efforts to broker an end to the fighting, and which was again on show during the latest critical meeting in St. Petersburg between Trump’s business buddy-turned-top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, and Putin himself.