Trump’s push for peace tested as Putin meeting called off and Gaza ceasefire shows cracks

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump is trying to end two brutal wars on two continents. And, tonight, his pursuit of peace faces challenges in both Ukraine and Gaza.

Geoff Bennett:

The administration now says the president has no plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin any time soon. That's as Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to Israel today to try to ensure that a fragile cease-fire holds.

Nick Schifrin is following both of these developments and joins us now.

All right, Nick, so let's start with Putin. President Trump initially said they'd meet within weeks. What happened?

Nick Schifrin:

President Trump made that prediction late last week that they would have a meeting within two weeks.

But, tonight, administration officials sent me this statement — quote — "There are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future."

Geoff, as we talked about, Trump has long believed that his relationship with Putin would produce peace in Ukraine. But this afternoon in the White House, Trump seemed to dismiss the possibility of making any progress with Putin.

Donald Trump, President of the United States: I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time. So I will see what happens.

Nick Schifrin:

The president later added that nothing had been decided and that he would decide whether to meet Putin within two days.

But the fact is that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was supposed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week to hash out the Trump-Putin summit. But two U.S. officials tell me the Rubio-Lavrov phone call yesterday revealed once again that Russia maintains its maximalist demands, among them this: Ukraine must give up parts of the Eastern Donbass region that Ukraine holds, even though Russia has failed to win it on the battlefield.

Number two, Ukraine can never join NATO. Number three, Western troops cannot be based in or even train Ukrainian troops inside Ukraine. And, number four, Ukraine's military capabilities must be limited, including its ability to fire long-range weapons.

Those are largely the same exact demands that Russia made in late 2021 before the full-scale invasion, which means that neither three years of war, during which Ukraine caused one million Russian casualties, nor Trump's efforts on diplomacy, have shifted Russian positions.

And, today, Lavrov specifically rejected Trump's demands that the war end on the current front lines.

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister (through interpreter):

Now, when we hear from Washington that — quote — "We must stop immediately" and that we must not discuss anything further, well, if we simply stop, that would mean forgetting about the root causes of the conflict, which the U.S. administration, with the arrival of Donald Trump, has clearly understood and voiced.

Nick Schifrin:

Russia may see a more friendly president, Geoff, but clearly feels no pressure to accept Trump's demands or amend its own.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, let's shift our focus now to the Middle East. The vice president is in Israel, as we mentioned. What did he say?

Nick Schifrin:

So Vice President Vance is visiting Israel with Trump's top senior advisers on the Middle East, Jared Kushner and Ambassador Steve Witkoff.

And today they voiced support for the ongoing cease-fire, even though we have seen major violations over the last few days. The Israeli military says Hamas gunmen crossed into Israeli-controlled territory inside Gaza, killing two Israeli soldiers, while Hamas said it was cut off from those fighters. Israel launched widespread airstrikes, killing more than 40 Gaza.

Despite all of that, Vance expressed great optimism that the cease-fire would hold. He also discussed the return of the deceased Israeli hostages. Two more are crossing over from Gaza into Israel tonight. But Hamas missed a 72-hour deadline to hand over all of those deceased hostages. About 13 remain in Gaza.

But, today, the vice president did not blame Hamas for that. He even declined to give Hamas a deadline for that. And he said he understood why there was a delay.

J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States: This is difficult. This is not going to happen overnight. Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are. That doesn't mean we shouldn't work to get them. And that doesn't mean we don't have confidence that we will.

Nick Schifrin:

Vance also declined to impose a deadline on Hamas to disarm, Geoff, but repeated the president's threat that, if Hamas did not arm — disarm, it would be — quote — "obliterated."

The next step, of course, as we have talked about in this process, trying to get some kind of reconstruction and foreign forces into Gaza, U.S. officials tell me there is no agreement from any country to actually send any of those troops into Gaza yet.

Geoff Bennett:

Nick Schifrin, our thanks to you for this reporting.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you.