U.S. President Donald Trump shot down the demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine during his meeting with European leaders on Aug. 18. It was prompted by a comment from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said: “I can’t imagine that the next meeting [between Putin and Zelenskyy] would take place without a ceasefire. So let’s work on that, and let’s try to put pressure on Russia, because the credibility of these efforts, these efforts we are undertaking today depend on at least a ceasefire from the beginning.” Trump responded immediately: “In the six wars that I’ve settled, I haven’t had a ceasefire. We just got into negotiations. If we can do the ceasefire, great, and if we don’t do a ceasefire, because many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us—great points,” Trump said. He called instead for a full peace agreement.
The call for a ceasefire first, then negotiations, and various similar formulations has been a core demand of European NATO nations and Ukraine since Trump came into office and began discussing a settlement. His decision to reject this in favor of a “peace agreement” is therefore a significant snub to that crowd, and is more in line with Russia’s call to address the “root causes of the conflict” in order to bring the war to a close.
