WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - National Security Matters: Russia-Ukraine Peace Negotiations

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Malia discusses the merits of a prospective Ukraine-Russia permanent peace deal in light of the recent partial ceasefire and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy's history of negotiating with Russia.  

Hello and welcome to National Security Matters, the show where we discuss foreign policy, national security, the defense industry, and the organizations and individuals therein. I'm your host, Malia Tibito. Today, let's talk about the Russia-Ukraine limited ceasefire with a focus on America's role in negotiations and the differing demands of the two leaders for a complete ceasefire. Now, the current situation is the culmination of several events and for Trump, the first concrete step towards fulfilling his campaign promise to completely stop the Russia-Ukraine, During the September 10 debate with Harris, Trump said, quote, I want to get the war settled. I know Zelensky very well. I knew Putin very well. And they respect me, end quote.

When talking about the Biden administration and what I, Malia Tibito argue, can be applied to Europe as well, he said, quote, they don't even try to get it, referring to how nobody's picked up the phone to try and negotiate peace. This is a war that's dying to be settled, Trump said. I will get it settled even before I become president. There's many things to unpack from that statement. One, no meaningful negotiation between the warring nations has happened. After a failed negotiation in spring 2022, held by Turkey, a failed 2023 Peace Summit in Switzerland,

peace negotiations stalled before 2025. The Ukraine capture of Kursk was meant to be a valuable land trade bargain for negotiation in 2024, but Russian officials rejected any hope of diplomacy afterward. With Trump three years after the war began, this is the first time that Russia and Ukraine have have had direct and meaningful diplomacy. Number two, the war cannot be won militarily by either side. This is something the Trump administration and analysts agree on. The European countries will continue to support Ukraine against Russia by providing military intelligence and monetary aid. Russia is also currently surviving on its wartime economy. It is receiving imports of weapons

from Iran, China, North Korea, so they will just keep fighting for territory back and forth and back and forth. Obviously, this last part of Trump's statement did not happen, as it has been three months and the war is not over. However, the Saudi Arabia negotiations and limited ceasefire is the best sign we've seen in a while. On March 10th of this year, when speaking to reporters about the upcoming meeting with Ukrainian representatives in Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, quote, the most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like Russia is going to have to do difficult things to end the conflict or at least pause it end quote rubio was talking about concessions

zolensky has previously wanted international recognition of kremya and dolensk as solidly ukrainian he phrased this as recognition of the territorial integrity of ukraine ukrain and other european countries specifically the baltics and poland are widely in support of this the thought is that if ukraine cedes territory for peace it is legitimizing military conquest and brings the world back into the 20th century. Zolensky wanted international military and economic investment into his country, security guarantees from Western nations, and a spot in both NATO and the EU. The man's outlined in his victory plan first unveiled in October 24. After the August offensive in Kurs, Zelensky stopped talking about possible land exchanges between Russia and Ukraine,

seeming to only focus on seeking more age to militarily push Russia out of the country. However, on March 11th, after a talk with Trump, Zelensky said he, back an American negotiation for a complete 30-day ceasefire. Trump and Rubio, as have previously stated, have said both Ukraine and Russia should be prepared to do difficult things, which would include seating lands. Putin, of course, shows no public sign of major concessions. He continues to demand five things. One, a complete cessation in foreign military intelligence, economic, and monetary aid

from allies to Ukraine. Two, Ukraine must abandon its bid to join NATO. three, no European or American peacekeepers in Ukraine, four, four regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kersen, and Zapparjija, the last of which is home to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe that Russia has occupied since the beginning of the war. And five, functional disarmament of the Ukrainian armed forces, which in the spring of 2022, he said, should be reduced by 95%. Putin only agreed to a limited ceasefire on energy infrastructure and the possibility of future negotiations toward a maritime one. Though the March 18th limited ceasefire deal was agreed to verbally,

technical talks will be happening this weekend in Saudi Arabia with the U.S. as arbitrators. This is amidst claims from both Russia and Ukraine that the other side has already violated the ceasefire agreement and should not be trusted. Next time, we will be pivoting a spotlight of what the Hamas covenant actually says. As a terrorist organization, it's important that the U.S. recognizes the specific threat it poses against American interests. Until then, this has been National Security Matters with Malia Tibre on WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.