Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sat down for a face-to-face talk in the opulent halls of a Vatican basilica to discuss a possible ceasefire, after which the US president accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of not wanting to “stop the war”.

The White House described Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader before Pope Francis’s funeral as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

It was the first time that Zelenskyy and Trump had met face to face after a frosty February encounter in the White House where Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of ingratitude for US aid.

  • @LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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    8019 hours ago

    Is he seriously just realizing Vlad doesn’t want to end the war? I really can’t tell when he’s an idiot or colluding these days

    • Raltoid
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      9 hours ago

      In his mind he’s ~6’ 3", ~230 lbs with an IQ of 150.

      He truly thinks that world leaders look up to him and that he’s playing everyone else.

    • ☂️-
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      17 hours ago

      Vlad wants to end the war. On his terms though, cause he knows he can get it.

      • @LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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        817 hours ago

        With Trump yes his chances have certainly increased. Though the EU looks more willing to help Ukraine than I expected, which is great.

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          15 hours ago

          Chances have been looking good for russia. I don’t believe Europe has the capacity to deal with russians by themselves, they’d really have to ramp up manufacturing.

      • @obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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        418 hours ago

        If I had to guess (my knowledge is a couple of geopolitics books), I’d say Russia wants to create a rift between East and West that is beneficial to China as well. China helped Russia build a quantum computer recently and there are more clues that they’re getting even closer together. I think Russia wants to shake the current world order.

        • @freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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          2118 hours ago

          Why does maintaining a war, which consumes resources, laborers, and focus/attention, and also creates security threats, be beneficial to to Russia for shaking the current world order?

          • @obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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            518 hours ago

            Russia has been cut out from the West, it couldn’t even participate in the Olympics. So it got closer to China. Its economy is resilient despite the war. Russia has also been the leading country in the BRICS in regard to finding an alternative to the dollar together with Brazil. And it is working to ditch SWIFT (the banking system). So I’d say Russia is pretty interested into getting away from the West, at least economically and politically.

              • @obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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                117 hours ago

                Because it deepens the rift. Donald Trump as president also helps Putin a lot, as the russian president have said before, since Trump also wants to shake things up. As could be seen by his tariff policies.

      • @LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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        -518 hours ago

        It’s for Putin he can’t possibly admit defeat. Plus they’re probably banking on the US abandoning Ukraine and the EU not mobilizing aid fast enough. Ukraine is in a rougher spot than they’re letting on, though victory is certainly still possible.

          • @LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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            18 hours ago

            I mean…I’m sure that factors in…? But I certainly didn’t boil it down to something that simplistic. There are a lot of reasons he can’t admit defeat.

                • @freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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                  1215 hours ago

                  You said Putin cannot admit defeat for some reason and I asked if the reason he cannot admit defeat is because Russia has not been defeated yet.

                  • @LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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                    -214 hours ago

                    Not interested in debating with someone who will likely eventually reveal they think Putin is justified/right. Unless you’re willing to say right here that Russia is an aggressor nation and that the nation, along with its authoritarian leader Putin, is completely in the wrong, I’m not continuing this conversation.

                    You’re being cute and dancing around with your “just asking questions” nonsense to avoid explicitly saying what you believe. Enough bait, be direct. Say what you want to say or piss off.