President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he does not plan to meet with any Russians other than their leader, Vladimir Putin. However, this will only happen after he and US President Donald Trump have prepared a general plan to end the war.
I could be wrong, but I think it’s pretty likely that Putin will refuse to meet with him. At the end of the day, Putin wants peace, but all that happens if he doesn’t get it is more dead soldiers and more economic ruin, both of which he seems to be fine with. And, now that Trump is in office, time is on his side.
It’s a good move by Zelensky, still: Show that he won’t accept performative shows of him being “lesser than.” He has nothing to gain by letting himself get pushed around. Of course, Trump isn’t helping by going around squawking about stuff he wants to give away to Putin, but I honestly don’t think anyone takes Trump seriously enough for that to be as big a crisis as it seems like it would be.
I think Tim Snyder’s writing about “The Weak Strongman” also applies to Putin as it does to Trump (to a much lesser degree, Putin’s certainly capable, he’s just too criminal to be able to make his country capable).
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-weak-strongman