Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sat down for a face-to-face talk in the opulent halls of a Vatican basilica to discuss a possible ceasefire, after which the US president accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of not wanting to “stop the war”.

The White House described Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader before Pope Francis’s funeral as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

It was the first time that Zelenskyy and Trump had met face to face after a frosty February encounter in the White House where Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of ingratitude for US aid.

  • obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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    2 days ago

    If I had to guess (my knowledge is a couple of geopolitics books), I’d say Russia wants to create a rift between East and West that is beneficial to China as well. China helped Russia build a quantum computer recently and there are more clues that they’re getting even closer together. I think Russia wants to shake the current world order.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 days ago

      Why does maintaining a war, which consumes resources, laborers, and focus/attention, and also creates security threats, be beneficial to to Russia for shaking the current world order?

      • obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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        2 days ago

        Russia has been cut out from the West, it couldn’t even participate in the Olympics. So it got closer to China. Its economy is resilient despite the war. Russia has also been the leading country in the BRICS in regard to finding an alternative to the dollar together with Brazil. And it is working to ditch SWIFT (the banking system). So I’d say Russia is pretty interested into getting away from the West, at least economically and politically.

          • obbeel@lemmy.eco.br
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            2 days ago

            Because it deepens the rift. Donald Trump as president also helps Putin a lot, as the russian president have said before, since Trump also wants to shake things up. As could be seen by his tariff policies.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 days ago

              How does continuing the war deepen the rift? Clearly it strengthens the resolve of European countries to develop their militaries and build alliances.

              • 3abas@lemm.ee
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                13 hours ago

                You’re asking good questions, but there’s a bigger picture here.

                Keeping the war going does deepen the rift between the “West” and the “rest” (Global South, China, parts of Africa, Latin America) because the longer it drags on, the more global fatigue sets in.

                Europe may strengthen militarily, but economically and politically it’s getting weaker… inflation, energy crises, internal divisions (think of Hungary, Slovakia, even parts of Germany), and rising far right movements that don’t necessarily want to give aid to Ukraine.

                Meanwhile, countries in the Global South see the West’s endless funding of the war and start asking why wars and genocides elsewhere (like in Palestine, Sudan, Yemen) don’t get the same attention or aid. That erodes Western moral authority globally, this alone is probably why you’re here on this platform today.

                China and Russia use that frustration to present themselves as “alternatives” to U.S. and European dominance — even if it’s obviously self-serving.

                Also, a prolonged war keeps the U.S. distracted and pouring resources into Ukraine instead of focusing fully on Asia-Pacific (where China’s real ambitions lie). From Putin’s view, even if Russia suffers economically, the systemic weakening of Western unity is a bigger win in the long run.