As Ukraine Battlefield Defeat Looms, Trump-Putin Summit Back on Agenda

Nov. 12—Sources close to the White House confirm that a summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that will take place in Budapest is back on the agenda, although no date has yet been set. These sources report that Trump has communicated directly to Putin through his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff that he believes such a summit could now achieve "tangible results" toward ending the fighting in Ukraine, which Trump has claimed is killing more than 7,000 soldiers on both sides every week.

The Trump-Putin summit would provide a framework for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which would be guaranteed by the United States and Trump personally, and could also involve a guarantee by China. The concept was initially suggested by Trump during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last month, where the outline for a historic trade deal between the two countries was reached, lowering tensions in a developing trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Broader Agenda Includes Arms Control and Infrastructure

Beyond the war in Ukraine, the summit would take up other issues, including the proposal by Putin to extend the START nuclear arms control treaty beyond its expiration early next year, as well as potential trade and development deals between the two superpowers. These include the widely discussed proposal to jointly build a tunnel across the Bering Strait, which would join the two countries and facilitate trade and development in Alaska and Russia's Arctic north.

The possibility of the summit, which Trump had cancelled early last month, was mentioned during discussions last week at the White House between Trump and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had met recently with Putin and again offered Budapest as a site for the summit.

Orban, on his way to Washington, told the newspaper Magyar Nemzet that “there are one or two unresolved issues left in U.S.-Russia negotiations” on settling the Ukraine conflict. “If they are resolved, a peace summit in Budapest could take place within days.” Then, in a later interview with Kossuth Radio, he expressed confidence that such a summit “will happen,” but cautioned that “we do not yet know whether it will bring a solution or simply be an important step toward peace.”

Trump Signals Readiness for Budapest Meeting

Prior to the meeting with Orban, Trump told reporters Nov. 7 that he would like to proceed with a Budapest summit. When asked about it, he said: “There’s always a chance, a very good chance…. If we have it, I’d like to do it in Budapest.”

At their joint press conference, Orban blamed the Biden administration for whipping up Europe’s Russophobia. He explained: “Without the pressure coming from the U.S. government—I’m speaking about 2022—the Europeans would not take that hard line that they have today on the war.” Trump responded positively, saying that “Biden actually pushed for that war to happen,” adding that he, Trump, had “inherited that mess.”

A source close to the White House provided background as to what had delayed the summit and why it is more likely to take place now.

Ceasefire Conditions and NATO Tensions

"The key to going ahead with the summit was an agreement by Putin to a ceasefire in place, and then to have talks about which land in Ukraine Russia would control pushed back to direct discussions between Russia and Ukraine," said the source. "But Putin insisted that before he would agree to a ceasefire, the 'root cause' of the conflict—NATO's expansion eastward toward the Russian border and its desire to include Ukraine—had to be addressed. Trump supports this view, but the problem was with NATO and its puppet Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They refused to renounce NATO membership. This had all been worked out in calls between Trump and Putin and discussions between Putin and Witkoff. So, it was the Europeans, under the direction of that fop, [British Prime Minister] Sir Keith Starmer, that blew up the summit so that the war could continue.

"There have been some stupid reports from the NATO propaganda machine, which includes Reuters, the BBC, and the Wall Street 'Urinal,' as well as such 'reliable' sources as Axios and Politico, that Trump had been persuaded that Ukraine could win the war, and Russia could be defeated, and that Putin would leave Ukraine," said the source. "You would have to be a crackhead or a European NATO leader to believe such nonsense. Trump knows Ukraine was losing and knew that no weapons provided to Ukraine, such as Tomahawks, would make a difference, but would only increase the strategic threat to the United States. Trump also realized that Putin, under the circumstances, needed an incentive to stop a war that he was winning.

"But now things are changing for the dramatically worse for NATO and Ukraine on the battlelines," said the source. "Ukraine is suffering major defeats and lacks the manpower to reverse anything now. Victory is impossible and a rout is far more likely. The way to avoid this is to give Putin the guarantees on NATO membership and the march toward Russia's borders he wants and put a ceasefire in place. This would make the summit possible.

"Trump wants the meeting to take place as soon as possible, as soon as the details can be worked out," said the source. "He and his team had come up with a way to bypass European opposition to an end to the war, with no NATO expansion, if that becomes necessary. Trump would guarantee to Putin that the U.S. would block such expansion, doing all in its power to prevent it. This was discussed with Orban and has been communicated to Putin."

Military Collapse and Urgent Calls for Diplomacy

Simplicius, the respected military blogger, confirms the dire state of affairs for NATO and its Ukraine proxy, painting a picture of delusional European leaders demanding “forever war” against Russia, while panic is spreading about the collapse of Ukraine’s forces on the front in Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeisk).

Simplicius cites an unnamed Russian analyst saying the following:

“The battle for Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad has far more political than military significance. An important reason for the collapse of Russian-American negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine was Zelenskyy and his European allies’ ability to convince the Trump administration that the Russian army was exhausted and no longer capable of conducting successful offensive operations...

“The crisis of Ukrainian defense in the Pokrovsko-Mirnograd agglomeration and in Kupyansk, alongside growing problems near Konstantinovka, Lyman, Seversk, and Guliaipole, indicates exactly the opposite. The Ukrainian armed forces are barely holding the front, and a full encirclement near Pokrovsk is quite possible, something that has not happened since Mariupol.

“But the real catastrophe for Ukraine’s political leadership will not be a military defeat, but a political one: the image of successfully containing the Russian offensive is falling apart..."

Other sources report that the U.S. has reached out to the leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces, going around Zelenskyy. These sources say the military leaders have urged a diplomatic solution as rapidly as possible, telling American intelligence not to believe anything they are being told by NATO. "We don't have the manpower to keep fighting," they are reported to have said, stating that they are now using "fighters" from the drug cartels in Mexico and elsewhere on the front lines. 

The Ukrainian military has maintained contact with their Russian counterparts and are prepared to rapidly end the war, these sources report, if given the word from Trump and negotiators.