Trump: Putin Wants Peace Deal More Than Zelensky
President Donald Trump is betting big that peace in Ukraine is closer than anyone thinks — and he says the one dragging his feet is Volodymyr Zelensky. On Monday, Trump declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal more than Zelensky,” a striking assessment delivered as the president claimed credit for forcing both sides into a weekend energy ceasefire.
A Truce Forced Over the Weekend
Trump told reporters he personally compelled Moscow and Kyiv to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. “They agreed because I said they agreed,” he said, describing a limited truce reached over the weekend. Zelensky had accused Putin of already breaking the days-old agreement by striking natural gas infrastructure, but Trump waved that aside, saying violations had occurred on both sides rather than blaming Moscow alone. The exchange underscored Trump’s dealmaker posture: he treats both combatants as negotiating partners to be pressed, not as heroes and villains.
32,000 Lives in a Single Month
The president framed the urgency in human terms. “All I know is that Zelensky and Putin have to get together and end that ridiculous war. This month they lost 32,000 people in that war, and it’s ridiculous,” Trump said before departing for a campaign rally in Ohio. The staggering monthly toll is the backdrop for every Trump peace push: each week of delay, in his telling, is measured in lives that diplomacy could have saved. It is a moral arithmetic the president has used repeatedly to justify his hands-on diplomacy.
Tough Words for Zelensky
Trump has sharpened his criticism of the Ukrainian leader in recent days. After Zelensky publicly criticized a deal announced Friday in which Russian diesel will be exported to the US, Trump said “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.” Zelensky had also defied earlier Trump demands to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries — strikes the administration links to a near-doubling of global diesel costs, compounded by the continuing US-Iran war. The message from Washington is unmistakable: Kyiv’s battlefield tactics now carry a political price.
The Dealmaker’s Play
For Trump, the formula is simple. “I think they want to make a deal, but they don’t know how. But we’re going to get them to make a deal,” he said Monday. Whether or not the energy ceasefire holds, the president has positioned himself as the only figure both sides will talk to — and he is using that leverage openly. Peace, in Trump’s framing, is not a hope but a transaction waiting for its closer.
The road from a shaky energy truce to a full settlement remains long, and both capitals will test the limits of Trump’s patience. But Monday’s message was clear: the president believes the deal is within reach, and he intends to be the one who closes it.
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