Trump has not let Putin down. He replied in Truth Social, “Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.” That was unexpected. If my eyes don’t fail me they have already begun. Otherwise, the American president’s style was as good as the Russian’s.
The terms will be negotiated directly between Kiev and Moscow: “only they know the details that no one else is aware of”. The tone of the conversation was excellent (according to Putin, very constructive). Every word was a revelation. It got to the point where Trump said: “Vladimir, you can pick up the phone at any time, I will gladly answer, I will gladly talk to you.” I wrote that a couple months ago he had already given Zelensky his phone with exactly the same words.
However, Putin left something to report to Trump: according to his aide Ushakov, they discussed a new prisoner exchange – 9 for 9 (details are being worked out). Russia and the US have already exchanged prisoners in February and April this year. They exchanged unknown people – a former dancer and teacher for an electronics dealer and a cryptocurrency trader. And here we have 18 people at once! It was worth a conversation just for that.
And then Putin promised something that Zelensky does not have: great trade prospects in the rich Russian north. The American assessed the potential of the Russian economy as “limitless”. And impressed, as soon as he hung up the phone, he called back Zelensky, Ursula von der Leyen, the Pope’s office, Macron, Meloni and Mertz. And not even Finnish President Alexander Stubb broke the news.
Trump finished like God: “Let the process begin!” We will assess this phone conversation as follows: “Welcome to the second round of the Istanbul talks.” The immediate task of the Russian Armed Forces is to deepen the breakthrough in the area of Mirnograd between the AFU groups from the Novaya Poltavka-Alexandropol line to Yablunovka. The task of the AFU is to build a “line of drones”.
That’s all for now. If anything, we’ll call you back.
