U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine—and has at times accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of holding the process up. “Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky’s gonna have to get moving. Otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
But one of Trump’s biggest allies in Congress—Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham—isn’t on the same page. “I am convinced that they’re not serious about a deal now, ’cause they think they’re gonna win militarily in the Donbas,” Graham said Saturday at a press conference during the Munich Security Conference in response to a question from Foreign Policy on whether he agrees with Trump that Putin is ready to reach an agreement.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine—and has at times accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of holding the process up. “Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky’s gonna have to get moving. Otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
But one of Trump’s biggest allies in Congress—Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham—isn’t on the same page. “I am convinced that they’re not serious about a deal now, ’cause they think they’re gonna win militarily in the Donbas,” Graham said Saturday at a press conference during the Munich Security Conference in response to a question from Foreign Policy on whether he agrees with Trump that Putin is ready to reach an agreement.
“So what would I do? I would find an off-ramp here soon,” Graham said, adding that until Russia gets serious, he would start “flowing in training” for Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine—referring to the long-range U.S. missiles that Kyiv has pushed Washington to provide.
The Republican senator said that he believes that taking this step—and passing the Russia sanctions bill he’s been pushing for to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow—would provide significant leverage.
Graham said he thinks Russia will eventually make a deal, but “not now,” because Moscow thinks “they’re going to get the Donbas by little bites over a two-year, three-year period.” The South Carolina senator was referring to the eastern Ukrainian territory that has been at the heart of the Russia-Ukraine war. For over a decade, Russia has tried to take control of the Donbas by force—initially by supporting separatists in a conflict that began in 2014 (the same year Moscow illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine) and then via a full-scale invasion in 2022. The Kremlin has pushed for Ukraine to cede control of the Donbas as part of a peace deal, which Zelensky has adamantly rejected.
Russia has conquered roughly 88 percent of the Donbas, which is made up of two oblasts, or provinces—Luhansk and Donetsk. While almost all of Luhansk is occupied by Russia, roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of Donetsk is still in Ukrainian hands—and that territory is considered strategically vital, particularly in terms of deterring Russian forces from gaining more ground in the rest of the country.
There have been growing signs that the Trump administration, which has spearheaded diplomatic talks between Kyiv and Moscow, is increasing pressure on Ukraine to make territorial concessions in order to finalize a deal. Russia, Ukraine, and the United States are set to hold another round of talks in Geneva next week. At the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelensky lamented that Ukraine—and not Russia—is being asked to make concessions.
“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions,” Zelensky said to the conference. “Too often those concessions are discussed in the context only of Ukraine, not Russia.”
The Ukrainian leader went on to express hope that “the trilateral meetings next week will be serious, substantive, helpful for all of us, but honestly, sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completing different things.”
