A Ukrainian lawmaker told CBS News on Wednesday that President Trump should not approach peacemaking efforts with Russia like a business deal, saying the American leader must “understand he cannot trade with Putin” as the “aggressor” in the war, which is nearing its four-year mark.
Lisa Yasko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament from the same party as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke with CBS News after high-level talks in Moscow between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff failed to yield any breakthroughs.
Yasko said that was largely due to Putin’s lukewarm interest in achieving peace.
“[Putin] was smiling so much at this meeting with Witkoff, but absolutely this is not about the peace itself,” she said. “He’s interested in showing that he’s geopolitically active … how cool you are, how Americans are treating you and that you are not a war criminal.”
“President Trump can be very transactional, in a good way also,” Yasko told CBS News. “But you cannot make peace with only economic deals. You cannot go that far as pleasing an aggressor. I believe there are certain lines.”
CBS News
The Tuesday meeting in the Russian capital, which also included Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was part of a concerted push by the White House to broker an agreement based on a Trump administration proposal.
That proposal was initially floated by the White House weeks ago as a 28-point plan, but Ukraine and its European partners balked at calls for Kyiv to cede occupied territory to Russia, and the draft was later amended during talks with Ukrainian and European officials.
After the five-hour round of talks on Tuesday, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Putin, told reporters the conversation was “rather useful, constructive, rather substantive,” but that “we are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine, and there is much work to be done.”
When asked by CBS News if she believed Putin was just playing for time by continuing to meet, Yasko said the Russian strongman’s true intention was clear: to change the global order and assert Russia as a key powerbroker.
“Putin is trying to have his new world order by playing a central part in the [global] economy with China and the U.S. and with other parts of the world,” Yasko said. “Now Trump is offering a deal with benefits for [the] Russian economy. It’s insanity for all of us here in Ukraine.”
Putin, speaking before the talks in Moscow on Tuesday, accused America’s European allies of standing in the way of Mr. Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal, saying he wasn’t looking for a conflict with Europe, but adding that Russia was “ready for war.”
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Yasko urged Mr. Trump to come and see for himself the impact of Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion on Ukraine and its people — a trip Zelenskyy has also repeatedly urged his American counterpart to make.
“He should come here first,” she told CBS News. “He should see what happened in Ukraine. He should see the faces, the eyes of people.”
Yasko called the peace deal initially put forward by the Trump administration “insulting” to Ukraine.
Many European leaders have voiced concern that if Russia is given what it wants in exchange for a ceasefire in Ukraine, it would set a dangerous precedent of appeasing a unilateral landgrab, and it could encourage Russia to increase threats against their countries.
Already, America’s Western European NATO allies have accused Russia of breaching their airspace with drone flights around airports and military bases, as well as fighter jets. There have also been allegations of a widespread Russian sabotage campaign targeting key infrastructure in Europe.
European leaders, meanwhile, appear to have been largely sidelined as the White House negotiates directly with Russia and Ukraine.