Just a few days after the US and Russian leaders finalized the "bilateral meeting in Hungary," on October 22, US President Trump suddenly announced that this "Trump-Putin summit" was canceled. His next itinerary is flying directly to South Korea to prepare for the APEC meeting.

Who is mainly responsible for this cancellation of the meeting? Putin did not come out to explain himself. Trump, however, accused Putin of being "dishonest." Trump didn't just complain verbally, but decided to take action, directly sanctioning two of Russia's largest oil companies, showing he was really angry.

Considering that Trump had just forced Ukrainian President Zelenskyy out of the White House a few days ago and refused to provide Tomahawk cruise missiles, this attitude shift obviously because he was played by Putin.

(The original "Trump-Putin summit" was suddenly canceled, and Trump's loss was clearly more severe)

According to media reports, both Trump and Putin verbally agreed to a ceasefire, even to a quick ceasefire, but their positions were different.

Trump's idea was for both sides to immediately stop all military actions on the current front lines and declare victory separately.

This strange logic comes from the battlefield reality in the Donbas front. Russia declared in 2022 that four provinces, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson, had joined Russia through local referendums.

However, Russia has not fully controlled the territory of the four provinces. At least in the important Donetsk and Luhansk, the Ukrainian army still holds some key strongholds. Although the Russian army has an advantage on the battlefield, its advance is extremely slow. In the Kherson province, the capital Kherson is still under the control of the Ukrainian army.

In another important direction, the Kharkiv province, Russia did not hold a referendum, but has occupied a large territory, with its forces getting closer and closer to the city of Kharkiv.

(The front lines in the four eastern Ukraine provinces have been in a stalemate for a long time, and it can be clearly seen that the Russian army has not fully controlled the land of the four provinces.)

So, according to Trump, since Russia has already gained a large territory, it can naturally declare its victory. Ukraine has not lost all four provinces to Russia, nor has it achieved the goal of de-Nazification and de-militarization at the beginning of the war, so it can also declare its victory.

But this is only Trump's one-sided idea. He treats the territory Russia has already obtained as a "generous" price. In his view, Russia has already gained enough and should stop.

However, according to Putin's perspective, since the four eastern provinces have already held referendums to join Russia, they should all be under Russia's control. Moreover, the Russian army is only one step away from occupying the entire area of the four provinces. Therefore, the condition for a ceasefire is that Ukraine must recognize these four provinces as part of Russia and withdraw its troops to allow the Russian army to occupy them, at least giving up the entire Donbas region.

(The "meat grinder" in the east of Ukraine, which has cost both sides great sacrifices over the years.)

Ukraine certainly cannot accept such a solution. According to the Ukrainian constitution, the government has the obligation to maintain territorial integrity. Not to mention the four provinces in the east, even Crimea, which was occupied by Russia in 2014, should continue to belong to Ukraine. Zelenskyy has no room for compromise on the territorial issue.

Even more inflammatory, Trump forced Zelenskyy to accept part of Putin's territorial demands in order to facilitate the ceasefire and negotiations, that is, to make the Ukrainian army give up its positions and withdraw from the Donbas region, which they have defended for years. Because of this, Zelenskyy and Trump had a big argument in the White House, and after being kicked out of the door, Zelenskyy held a press conference on the street in front of the White House.

As a result, Trump's peace plan was rejected by both Putin and Zelenskyy, and it definitely couldn't be implemented. Since Trump had already scolded Zelenskyy, "for fairness," he naturally scolded Putin as well. This led to the event of Trump canceling the Budapest summit between the US and Russia.

(The meal between Trump and Zelenskyy was not very harmonious.)

Putin, as an experienced intelligence officer and Russian political leader, has long understood the tricks of this real estate businessman, Trump. He never expected to get anything on the negotiation table that he couldn't get on the battlefield. Therefore, after Trump made a speech, Putin publicly stated that Russia would never yield to any pressure.

Subsequently, Putin ordered a large-scale nuclear war exercise involving the Russian Army, Navy, and Air Force. Although the US and Russia are not yet at the point of nuclear war, this move by Putin was a clear line drawn for Trump.

Trump may talk tough verbally, but Russia can just ignore it.

Bluffing sanctions can also be ignored by Russia.

As for the comprehensive ban on dual-use goods, Russia has its own ways to solve it. As a strategic partner, China can provide various machines, electronic components, and civilian supplies to Russia outside the arms list.

Therefore, Russia does not worry about how to continue the war. However, if Trump brings up the dangerous proposal of "providing cruise missiles" again, the consequences may not be something the US can control.

(After receiving orders, the Russian army fired an intercontinental missile; nuclear weapons are undoubtedly Russia's strongest backing.)

Trump has repeatedly hit a wall with Putin, not only because his political experience is less than Putin's, but more importantly, he treated the survival and death of two other countries as a commercial transaction, as if both sides could just get a piece of interest and shake hands to make peace.

Yet, throughout history, most countries' territories are won with blood and smoke, and it can be said that under every national border lies countless corpses.

Perhaps because the American territory came too easily, it has bred a leader like Trump who lacks political knowledge.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7564959582250975779/

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