Trump’s recent moves, including a conversation with Putin and a demand for Ukrainian mineral rights, are worrisome signs for Zelensky.
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was already facing a daunting week as foreign officials gathered in Europe for talks about his country’s future.
The Trump administration was demanding $500 billion in Ukrainian mineral rights, it canceled Ukraine’s exemption from U.S. tariffs on steel and a leading American skeptic of military assistance for Kyiv, Vice President JD Vance, was on his way to Europe for a meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
But on Wednesday, things went from bad to worse. President Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered a harsh assessment of Ukraine’s prospects in its war with Russia. Then Mr. Trump announced that he had spoken with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a call Mr. Trump characterized as the opening of talks to end the war — with no clear role for Mr. Zelensky.
The phone call also spelled the end of American efforts to isolate Russia diplomatically after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
“He’s on his heels geopolitically,” Cliff Kupchan, chairman of Eurasia Group, a risk analysis firm based in Washington, said of Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Trump’s actions in the last two days — which also included a prisoner swap with the Kremlin that freed an American teacher — signaled a thawing relationship between the United States and Russia that could favor Mr. Putin in a peace deal while leaving Ukraine on the sidelines.
Territorial control in Ukraine
Before 2014 invasion
BELARUS
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
ROMANIA
Before 2022 invasion
BELARUS
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
Russian-backed
separatist
control
ROMANIA
Russia seized
Crimea in 2014.
As of Feb. 12, 2025
BELARUS
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
Controlled
by Russia
ROMANIA
Territorial control in Ukraine
Before 2014 invasion
Before 2022 invasion
As of Feb. 12, 2025
BELARUS
BELARUS
BELARUS
RUSSIA
RUSSIA
RUSSIA
UKRAINE
UKRAINE
UKRAINE
ROMANIA
ROMANIA
ROMANIA
Russia seized Crimea
in 2014.
Russian-backed
separatist control
Controlled
by Russia
Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project
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