Following Monday's gathering in Washington between President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and key European leaders, the White House has announced plans for a possible trilateral meeting between the presidents of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine in Budapest as the next step in negotiating an end to the years-long.
The meeting could reportedly take place within two weeks.
In his recent op-ed, retired Army officer Bob Maginnis says both sides have goals for the peace negotiations.
"Zelenskyy doesn't want to give up any land. He wants security guarantees that don't expire when Trump leaves office," he notes. "Moscow basically wants to gobble up as much land as they can. But at the same time, I think they would like relief from sanctions and tariffs, and they would like some sort of normalcy to return so [Vladimir Putin] can let his powder dry and prepare for the next operation."
Though the U.S. has five brigade combat teams in Europe, Maginnis says, "We want no role in combat" and that this needs to be a European solution.
"We don't want our troops on the ground. Only a couple are permanent; others are rotational, and we could ship those over to Ukraine," he suggests.
Maginnis hopes Trump does not send ground troops into Ukraine as part of the security arrangement, but he is not totally convinced that the administration is not considering that.
