Zelenskyy was in Washington, D.C., Monday along with a handful of European leaders, all there to discuss President Donald Trump’s Friday Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Critics have made much of the red-carpet treatment at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and Trump’s friendly tone with Putin, the former KGB agent and the aggressor in a war now more than three years old.
But as fighting continues and lives are lost, Zelenskyy is not dealing from an advantage position, Ray Alexander said on American Family Radio Monday.
“I really, honestly, have not seen a way out for Ukraine. I don't believe they have sufficient leverage to dictate terms to Russia,” Alexander told show host Jenna Ellis.
There just doesn’t seem to be a path to end the war with Ukraine retaining possession of land Russia has come to control since its invasion in 2022 and, before that, the takeover of Crimea in 2014, Alexander said.
Earlier this month RussiaMatters.org reported almost 800,000 killed or injured for Russia, more than 400,000 for Ukraine.
Russia currently controls an estimated 44,600 square miles of Ukrainian territory, roughly 19% of the country’s total land mass.
It’s also some of Ukraine’s richest area for natural resources.
“Russia, I don't believe, is interested or has really any incentive to release the territory that it's taken over, and the controlled territory, the occupied territory by Russia is about 60-70 percent of the mineral and oil wealth in Ukraine,” Alexander said.
Perhaps that hard reality is why Zelenskyy was not invited to the Alaska meeting as Trump tries to negotiate a settlement.
Can Putin be trusted?
The warm reception for Putin may have been nothing more than the way the sausage is made. Putin is the leader of that sovereign nation, and it’s who Trump must work with – even when many question whether Putin can be trusted.
“(He) absolutely cannot. I think Trump knows that,” U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican, said on Washington Watch Friday.
Yet the meeting was necessary, she told show host Jody Hice.
“I think Trump likes face-to-face meetings to really get a feel, to see where his weaknesses are and his strengths, his body language. Trump is an expert at that. He's got very good intuitive sensitivity. So, I think right now, that's really what he's trying to do … to assess Putin,” Tenney said.
Goals regarding the war in Ukraine are very different for the U.S. and Russia, Tenney said.
“We look at it differently. I mean, President Trump wants to stop the killing. He wants to save lives. He's compassionate; he cares about the human loss. Russia doesn't care about that, especially a former KGB agent (like) Vladimir Putin. He cares about power and projecting strength around the world stage, even though they have a very small economy.”
Putin has “manipulated democracies” around the world including Democrats in the U.S., Tenney said.
Economics is thought to be one of Trump’s best leverage points in trying end the war.
Depending on how broad and coordinated the measures, economic pressure against Russia could lead to a weakened Russian ruble, increasing import prices and inflation.
Just the uncertainty could push foreign investors away from Russian businesses.
If sanctions targeted oil and gas exports (Russia’s main revenue source), even threats could lower investor confidence in Russian energy projects.
U.S. sanctions in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine continue. Trump extended them in February with an anticipated end date of March 2026 unless Congress intervenes.
For years, Russia promoted Nord Stream pipelines to deepen Europe’s reliance on Russian gas, while quietly discouraging EU-backed alternatives such as the Southern Gas Corridor. Some Eastern European projects stalled in part because Moscow lobbied hard against them and offered long-term gas contracts to keep countries tied to Gazprom.
In the Eastern Mediterranean, Russia has tried to maintain influence by aligning with regimes like Syria in part to maintain control over potential offshore gas projects that could compete with Russian exports.
In Central Asia, Moscow has pressured Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to send oil and gas exports through Russian pipelines rather than directly to China or Europe, limiting competition.
Zelenskyy support at home wanes
A Gallup poll conducted between July 1 and 14 found that approximately 69% of Ukrainians support a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible, compared to 24% who favor continuing the fight until victory.
“Support for the war effort has declined steadily across all segments of the Ukrainian population, regardless of region or demographic group,” Gallup found.
“It’s been nothing but an upward trend. I really don’t see any leverage that Ukraine holds in this scenario unless Europe stands aggressively behind Ukraine. Heretofore they’ve been unwilling to do so going all the way back to 2014 when they just let Russia annex the sovereign territory of Crimea,” Alexander said.
But the Europeans have a vested interest in the war and its outcome, thus the presence of so many leaders in Washington, D.C., right now.
“Europe feels defensive of its interests in these negotiations and rightfully so,” Alexander said.
All things considered there does not seem to be a great risk of increase U.S. involvement – at least not to the point of boots on the ground, he said.
“In a very, very unlikely scenario you could imagine that the U.S. might support arming or armaments, not just for Ukraine but NATO at large, perhaps in the most extreme scenario (providing) air cover.”
As talks continue, it just doesn’t look good for Ukraine to recover lost ground.
“I just doesn’t look good for Ukrainian negotiations. This is conjecture, but I believe that there really is no other option other than for them to accept territorial concessions,” Alexander said.
