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U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to open talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has spoken about the urgency of bringing the conflict to a peaceful conclusion. Fair enough.

For his part, President Putin has magnanimously reciprocated, saying he is ready to engage in talks with Trump.

So far, so good. At least the American side is no longer encumbered with the stupid intransigent, hostile mentality of the Biden administration, which refused to have any diplomatic contact with Russia.

Russia, for its part, has always been willing to negotiate a genuine way to not just end the conflict but to avoid future conflict. Before the war in Ukraine erupted three years ago in February 2022, Moscow put forward a comprehensive proposal for a security treaty in Europe in December 2021. The proposal stipulated that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance desist from aggressive expansion on Russia’s borders and, in particular, for Ukraine never to be a member of NATO. Those proposals were rejected out of hand by the U.S. and its European partners.

At the earliest stage of the Ukraine conflict, in March 2022, Russia negotiated a potential peace settlement with the Kiev regime in Istanbul, only for that proposal to be rejected by Washington and its British surrogate. The result has been three years of bloodshed and destruction, with millions of Ukrainian casualties and refugees. Ukraine has been destroyed thanks to the intransigence of its NATO sponsors.

If diplomacy is the art of making politics work then anything is possible. Opening talks is at least a start to exchanging ideas and demands to bring the conflict to an end and stop it from spiraling into a catastrophic global war between nuclear powers.

President Trump says he wants to end the conflict. But does he understand what the conflict is really about? If a problem is not correctly defined, then a solution is elusive.

Trump has a showman style of doing politics. He bragged about ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of being elected. Now he is talking about ending it in 100 days.

There are some positive indicators of good intentions. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said this week that he believed the Trump administration is determined to do a peace deal.

Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told senators during confirmation hearings for the post that her “priority would be to support President Trump’s efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.” (She may not be confirmed, however.)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview this week, repeated his calls for the war in Ukraine to end. In a telling comment, Rubio said the onus was on Russia and Ukraine to make compromises.

Here’s where the problems emerge. The Trump administration seems to think that a resolution is a matter for two sides – Russia and Ukraine – and that the U.S. is acting as a mere peace broker instead of being the instigator.

This was reflected in Trump’s own recent comments when he boorishly and stupidly warned Russia that if it did not come to the negotiating table, he would impose crippling sanctions on the Russian economy.

Trump is delusional if he thinks he can bully Russia or threaten the Russian economy. Such a fatuous attitude is out of order and counterproductive.

The fact is the American and European sanctions against Russia have already failed. Russia’s economy has strengthened by being more independent and developing new trade relations with the rest of the world. It is now ranked 4th in the world, above Germany and other European nations.

More importantly, Russia is decisively winning the war in Ukraine despite the colossal arming of the Kiev regime by the U.S. and its NATO partners. Ukrainian military lines are crumbling amid mounting losses. Even the Western media are reporting on the disarray and mass desertion of Ukrainian soldiers.

The notion that Russia can be pressured to the negotiating table by the Trump administration is a fallacy and a serious misconception about the nature of the conflict.

Furthermore, the two parties that need to negotiate are not the corrupt puppet regime in Kiev and Russia. It is the United States and Russia. The U.S. is a party to this war, not a peace broker.

If Trump’s administration is serious about making a peace deal, then it will have to be understood that the United States must accept Russia’s terms.

A mere ceasefire and freezing the hostilities in Ukraine, which is what Trump aides are touting, is far from adequate as a solution.

As we pointed out in our editorial last week, the conflict in Ukraine has deep roots in the imperialist machinations of the U.S. and its NATO proxy toward Russia. The history of this goes back decades, not just a few years.

Only by addressing the root causes of the conflict can an authentic peaceful resolution begin.

Russia’s terms have been adumbrated clearly for a long time. The United States and its NATO war machine need to respect Russia’s national security interests. The security treaty that Moscow proposed in December 2021 is a basis for negotiation.

So too are the realities on the ground. Russia’s new territories of Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea – all historic lands of Russia – are not negotiable.

Neither is Russia’s insistence that Ukraine can never be part of the NATO alliance.

If Trump can get his head around those big-picture geopolitical and historic issues, then maybe a deal can be made.

But the signs are that Trump and his administration have no understanding of the systemic problem. And even if Trump did gain an iota of understanding, it is doubtful that the American imperialist deep state will permit him to negotiate.

The problem goes way beyond individuals and their whimsical, egotistical notions. The problem of war and peace emanates from the inherently violent nature of the American state as it has evolved over the last century.

Russia’s searing experience of betrayal by the Western powers and the depth of political intelligence among its people and leadership will mean that blustering Trump hasn’t got what it takes to deliver an adequate deal.