The “nurse-patient conversation” was useful: Trump learned something about Putin
19 March 2025 16:11
OPINION
Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for almost two hours on the phone, but failed to agree on the announced 30-day ceasefire. All Putin agreed to was a joint cessation of air strikes on energy infrastructure. However, Putin violated this agreement immediately, sending missiles and drones to Ukraine once again.
Trump tried to make a “good game out of a bad game” and wrote on his social media account that he had a “very good” and “productive” conversation with Putin. However, he had to leave the details to the White House press secretary, Carolyn Levitt, who had already written that the negotiators had agreed to a ceasefire on infrastructure and energy.
Later, in an interview on Fox News, Trump said, when asked if he had discussed with Putin the cessation of arms supplies to Ukraine:
“I think we had a great conversation. It lasted almost two hours. We talked about many things on the path to peace. And we also talked about other things. But we never talked about [US] aid to Ukraine.”
So the world did not wait for the 30-day ceasefire announced by Trump, which was supposed to be the first step toward a long-term settlement. And Trump traditionally presents his defeat in these negotiations as a victory. After all, they did agree on something with the Kremlin dictator.
"Komersant Ukrainian" asked experts how they assess the results of this conversation and what to expect from Trump’s diplomatic activity in the future.
Political analyst Igor Reiterovich believes that the conversation was far from being as historic as it was announced.
“The conversation was definitely not historic. It turned out to be a ‘fluff’. A lot was expected from it, but in fact nothing happened. And, by and large, Putin diplomatically “sent” Trump away. He did not accept any of the key proposals or even the demands that Trump made of Ukraine. And he did everything as he saw fit, not as Trump saw it,”
– the expert said in an exclusive comment
According to the political scientist, the results of this conversation are clearly evidenced by the next shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure, which began a few hours after it ended. And this was a clear signal from the Russian leader.
“This is a signal that ‘I can do this, I can do that, and you have to come to me and ask, and I will decide whether I agree or not. In other words, the concept of peace through strength, which Trump likes to talk about, is being implemented by Putin, only in his distorted format. He’s ready to talk about peace, but it will be peace only on his terms,”
– the expert says.
In other words, the American president completely failed in these negotiations and did not achieve the goals he had so actively stated.
“Trump looked very weak in these talks, and he definitely did not achieve what he expected, even minimally,”
– Mr. Reiter emphasized.
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Political analyst Volodymyr Tsybulko has a slightly different view of the situation. He calls Trump’s call “technological” and believes that the American president did achieve certain goals.
“Trump’s call was technological. In fact, he took on the mission of an orderly diagnosing a patient. It was a conversation between an orderly and a patient, not a partnership conversation. There is no historicity in this, there is a technological approach, a purely operational approach. And its essence is to lure Russia into a more productive conversation,”
– said the political scientist exclusively for
The expert believes that the calculation is not made on Putin himself, because the West understands that he lives in his own information capsule. Instead, the Trump administration is trying to “bring out the realists” who understand the state of affairs and the consequences that threaten Russia. In this context, the conversation has yielded results, says Tsybulko.
Commenting on the regular Russian shelling of Ukraine that followed the conversation, Tsybulko explained the psychological component of such actions.
“Any understanding of a deadlock for Russia always psychologically translates into aggression. And the calculation is very simple. The calculation is that Ukraine will strike back. And the Kremlin’s propaganda machine will spin it as a violation of the agreements by the Ukrainian side. But the joke is that the Ukrainian side did not sit at the negotiating table. That is, these are Russian-American negotiations, not Russian-American-Ukrainian negotiations,”
– emphasized the political scientist.
He pointed out that the Americans also sent certain messages to the Russians, which were manifested in military actions. In his opinion, the US strike on the Houthis was a signal to Putin.
“Before calling Putin, Trump ordered a powerful strike on the Houthis. And this is a signal to Putin, not to Iran. It is a signal that Trump is very determined. And if Putin does not understand something a little bit, he will fall under the influence of the American power rink,”
– the political scientist summarized.
Therefore, according to the expert, for Trump, communication with Putin was diagnostic.
“These are Russian-American negotiations. It has always been clear that Putin says one thing to Trump’s face and does something completely different. But it seems to me that for Trump, this is exactly the approach of a diagnostician. That is, he personally had to make sure that Putin was wiping his feet on him,”
– summarized Volodymyr Tsybulko.
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