Russian state media has claimed a victory over Ukraine after a Florida summer between Donald Trump and Volodimir Zelensky appears to have forced Ukraine into making concessions. The meeting to flesh out the final stage of the Russian-Ukrainian peace deal took place at Trump’s Mar-a-lago estate on Sunday and was billed as a push towards ending Russia’s nearly four-year invasion.
But the pair seemed to reach a sticking point with some “thorny issues” still to be ironed out. When probed more about the specifics, President Trump claimed that some of the land Ukraine has spent nearly half a decade defending is still “up for grabs”, claiming that it has “already been taken.”
Trump went on: “I think the land you’re talking about, some of that land has been taken.
“Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months, and you’re better off making a deal.”
America’s Russian sympathy seems to be something that Moscow has taken as a victory, with a broadcast on state media labelling the summit as a win for Putin.
According to Russian broadcaster and noted Kremlin Propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, Moscow is delighted with how the meeting went, claiming it was all part of his country’s plan.
Speaking on his evening show, Solovyov said: “We have achieved a knockout victory, we prepared on a grandmaster’s level on all the main points and it worked.
“Everything was extremely precise, and of course Zelensky started to melt, he melted down.”
The Kremlin mouthpiece claimed that to dispute the two-hour meeting between Trump and Zelensky, “the mood just wasn’t there”.
He also claimed that a call between Trump and Moscow took place shortly before the Ukrainian president landed.
Solovyov goes on to see that the phone call “completely destroyed Zelensky’s plans,” arguing that he didn’t even need to get off the plane.
The broadcaster’s statements need to be taken with a grain of salt, but still give an insight into the optimism within the Kremlin for this deal to be weighed in Russia’s favour.
Their talk has worried many in Kiev, with Yuriy Boyechko, CEO and founder of Hope for Ukraine – a non-profit delivering humanitarian aid to war-torn Ukrainians – slamming Mr Trump’s approach as dangerously detached from reality.
Source : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2151854/Russia-thanks-trump-for-total-victory-over-Ukraine
