One of the key talking points from the Munich Security Conference this weekend was the state of peace negotiations – particularly ahead of more trilateral talks this week.
Marco Rubio said the gap is narrowing – but the flip side to that is the most difficult issues are what remain.
As diplomacy rumbles on, many of you got in touch with us last week to ask about the state of those talks.
Our military analyst Michael Clarke answered in the latest live Q&A – and he singled out Donald Trump.
“I think President Trump is thinking about the midterms. If he can get something before the end of June, even if something isn’t very complete, he can say… I’ve finally got peace in Ukraine,” he said.
The wrong strategy
Clarke added Trump has “tried with exactly the wrong strategy”, and instead of putting pressure on the Ukrainians, he should’ve gone harder at Vladimir Putin and the Russians.
“I mean, completely the reverse strategy… that might have worked,” he said.
“He put pressure on Ukrainians and was nice to the Russians; if he’d done it the other way around, if he was nice to the Ukrainians, he might have coaxed them into more concessions.”
Deadlines – are they worth it?
For some background to that, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington has given Ukraine a new June deadline to reach a settlement.
Trump has set several deadlines in the past year that have come and gone without a deal.
Clarke said that setting deadlines can be “effective”, but if he continues to do so, and they pass, then “eventually your credibility… drifts away”.
Catch up on the full Q&A here…
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