WSJ What’s News - Trump Wants a Quick Ukraine Deal. Putin Has Other Ideas.

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

A.M. Edition for Feb. 25. The U.S. wins backing for a United Nations resolution that doesn’t blame Russia for the Ukraine war. And while President Trump says an agreement to halt the fighting could be reached within weeks, WSJ correspondent Tom Grove says Russia sees an advantage in drawing out negotiations. Plus, Tesla’s sales in Europe fall 45% in the first month of the year, with CEO Elon Musk’s political activism and a refresh of the Model Y among the factors likely at play. And the Trump administration hits Iran with fresh sanctions aimed at blockading its oil exports. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. The U.S. steps up sanctions targeting Iranian oil, plus Tesla's sales in Europe nosedive. And while President Trump pushes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, Moscow has other ideas. For the Russians, a lot of it comes down to just clinching the talks, getting them started

and feeling as though they're on an equal footing with the United States. For the Kremlin, the timetable is as long as it takes. It's Tuesday, February 25th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We begin with the latest efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Yesterday, the U.S. joined Russia and China in backing a Washington-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a swift end to the conflict. And in comments alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, President

Trump made it clear that he's expecting diplomatic progress soon. I'd like to go directly to an agreement, but ceasefire will always happen a little bit quicker. And every day you're saving thousands or at least hundreds, but thousands in some cases lives. So we want to see if we can get that done very quickly. McCrone said that speed was a priority of his as well, noting that he shared Trump's wish for peace as soon as possible.

However, his comments come as multiple European leaders are trying to steer Trump closer to their position on how to end the war. For instance, five European countries abstained on that UN Security Council resolution about Ukraine yesterday, which didn't blame Moscow for the war. And as journal correspondent Thomas Grove is here to discuss, on top of those differences of opinion, Western timelines for ending the war are on a collision course with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thomas, you report that Putin is preparing the ground for interminable talks, endless

negotiations, apparently. Tell us a little bit more about how each side sees these peace negotiations. The US certainly wants it to happen fast so that it can move on to other problems, bigger problems that I think Trump feels the United States is facing, particularly China. For the Russians, a lot of it comes down to just clinching the talks, getting them started

and feeling as though they're on an equal footing with the United States. The timetable is as long as it takes. Lavrov said, we're not going to stop hostilities until we get the deal that suits us. And whenever they're talking about the deal that suits them, they've talked about what they call root causes of the conflict.

It comes down to the growing relationship between Ukraine and NATO. It comes down to the foreign weapons that are on Ukrainian territory now that can be used to strike Russia. And ultimately it comes down to, you know, Ukraine's potential entry into NATO. Oddly enough, into the EU, they seem to have less of a problem. In Istanbul, the, you know, original Istanbul talks in early 2022, not long after the outbreak of the war,

Russia seemed to be okay with letting Ukraine join the EU. NATO, however, is a totally different can of worms for them. Right. And another thing I imagine Russia won't be happy about is some of the reporting we've had in the last few days that the French and British are looking at plans to deploy European peacekeepers to Ukraine once a deal is struck. It's funny. I mean, Trump came out and said that Putin was okay with this.

But yeah, Russia would certainly have problems with NATO member states on Ukrainian territory Russia ultimately wants Ukraine to be Squarely back within Russia's sphere of influence that means in every way possible, you know Being able to dictate the amount of weapons that it has on its territory the size of its military Things like that Russia wants an end to the intelligence sharing that exists between the United States and Ukraine. That intelligence sharing has, you know, allowed Ukraine to strike very efficiently inside Russia. You know, what's thorny about this though is that it's acknowledged by neither side and creating an end to something that remains unacknowledged is a relatively

kind of thorny endeavor. At least that's what somebody who was briefed on these conversations told me. Just given the potentially long timeline for a peace agreement here and the fact, as you report, Russia plans to use its upper hand on the battlefield to its advantage. Do we have a sense of how long Ukraine might be able to sustain its war effort without further USAID? Well, it seems as though the Europeans have come forward with increasing kind of, you know, trickles of aid to Ukraine.

The Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski earlier this week said that he believes that Ukraine has until about the end of the year to continue fighting without another big arms package. So obviously what we're seeing on the battlefield for the Ukrainians is not great, right? The Russians are slowly nibbling away at their territory, but it seems like the Ukrainian forces are not crumbling. And I guess another major question here to wrap things up is that the US has a role to play in all of this, perhaps in speeding talks up, trying to hold Russia to account if they

appear to be dragging their feet. According to the folks you've spoken to, what is the assessment of sort of the American leverage that exists here to try to dictate the timetable? Yeah, so not long after Trump took office, you know, we saw a lot of rhetoric about, you know, the potential use of sanctions, dropping the oil price, potential aid, getting sent to Ukraine, using frozen Russian assets to send that aid to Ukraine. And in the last couple of weeks, we've seen that that rhetoric being dialed back. And we've seen a much kind of stronger turn towards using the leverage

that the US has on Ukraine. So trying to, you know, really force Zelensky to the negotiating table and particularly when it comes to the minerals deal that we see coming together. You know, whether that will change as negotiations go on, we don't know. But it is kind of an imbalance there that seems noteworthy. I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal correspondent Thomas Grove in Warsaw. Thomas, thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up, the rest of the day's news, including new sanctions targeting Iranian oil and a drop in Tesla's sales in Europe.

Those stories and more after the break. The U.S. is ratcheting up sanctions targeting Iran's oil supply chain, continuing the Trump administration's campaign to effectively blockade the country's petroleum exports. That's according to the Treasury Department, which has announced new sanctions on more than 30 entities, individuals, and vessels connected with Iran's so-called shadow fleet. These include oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker operators and managers in China, and the head of Iran's state-owned oil company. President Trump's policies are aimed at completely cutting off Iranian exports, with a memo issued earlier this month making reference to stopping shipments to China in particular.

Iran says the U.S.'s maximum pressure campaign is coercive and violates international law. A representative for Iran's mission to the UN in New York didn't respond to a request for comment. In news that could move markets today, Tesla's sales in Europe fell 45 percent last month, according to data from the European Carmakers Association, with the EV maker selling fewer than 1,300 new vehicles in Germany, Europe's largest market. European Autos reporter Steven Wilmot writes this morning that CEO Elon Musk's support for German far-right party AFD in this weekend's elections could be one reason for the pullback, alongside a hangover from high sales the previous month and a revamp of the Model Y.

We'll leave a link to that analysis in our show notes. We are exclusively reporting that Anthropic, the startup behind AI chatbot Claude, is finalizing a new funding round that values the company at $61.5 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, Anthropic initially set out to raise $2 billion, but was able to increase that to $3.5 billion during talks with investors, showing how eager investors are to back promising AI firms despite the disruptive arrival of China's DeepSeek. Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher is stepping down less than two years after taking on the top

role at the consumer goods giant. He'll be replaced by Finance Chief Fernando Fernández. The surprise departure comes in the midst of a major turnaround effort to cut costs and step up volume growth while rebuilding profit margins. U.S. dockworkers are expected to ratify a new labor contract that manufacturers hope will avert the prospect of more paralyzing strikes at East and Gulf Coast ports through 2030. The deal secures a 62 percent pay increase and full protection against automation for workers while allowing companies to more quickly modernize American ports and blunt some of

the costs of that wage increase. And on deck today, earnings from Home Depot and Keurig Dr. Pepper are due out this morning with fresh consumer confidence data set for release at 10am Eastern. And finally, we've talked here before about the AI race driving huge power demand as data centers scramble for available electricity, and as a result, power stocks, and particularly nuclear power stocks, emerged as some of Wall Street's biggest winners last year. But after those major run-ups is that nuclear power trade over, some of Wall Street's biggest winners last year. But after those major run-ups is that nuclear power trade over, and what do investors need to know about

owning nuclear power stocks? Those were some of the questions WSJ's Take on the Week co-host Telus Demos set out to answer in the latest episode of the podcast in conversation with Chris Hansen, the founder and portfolio manager of HedgeFund Valiant Capital Management. How would you describe the right way to think about those stocks at this point? I would say that every investor should make their own judgment, of course, and I'm not in the business to dole out stock-specific advice to people. But if you are interested in these stocks, you should remember that this is a very long-term thesis. It's not the type of things you want to be trading quarters over.

And the costs to operate the nuclear facility are relatively fixed. There is going to be a huge amount of cashflow and predictability of that cashflow that is going to flow out for these companies over like a 20 year period. So the stocks have moved up in anticipation of that, but I still think if you have a very long-term perspective, they will be great things to own. I do think there's better things to own. I want to make that clear in this sector that will also be very long duration, great bets. But I think that's the framework that you should use for your analysis.

And for much more on what you should know about artificial intelligence and the nuclear power trade, check out the latest episode of WSJ's Take on the Week wherever you get your podcasts. And that's it for What's News for this Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Bulevent and Daniel Bach with supervising producer Christina Rocca. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show.

Until then, thanks for listening.