President Donald Trump is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Friday as he pushed for an end to the war.

Former NATO ambassador Kurt Volker analyzed President Trump's efforts to broker peace in Ukraine, highlighting the use of Tomahawk missile aid as leverage in negotiations with Russia. Volker explained that Trump is attempting to pressure President Putin into a ceasefire by threatening to provide Ukraine with advanced weaponry and imposing additional sanctions on Russia's energy sector.

Despite repeated attempts, Volker noted that Putin has so far rebuffed Trump's overtures, demanding more territory and demilitarization from Ukraine. The discussion also touched on Russia's struggling economy and Ukraine's growing military strength. Volker suggested that if a ceasefire is agreed upon, Ukraine would gain a deterrent against future attacks, but only time will tell if these diplomatic efforts will succeed.

Trump pushes for peace in Ukraine

Let's bring in former ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker. Ambassador Volker, always good to be with you. As we heard from our Mike Carter, President Trump and Zelensky most likely, of course, discussing the topic of weapons, giving those Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Do you think, Ambassador, that the president will green light these missiles, and if so, what will that signal? Right. Well, only President Trump knows what he's really going to do here. No one really knows for sure. But what President Trump seems to be doing is using the threat of providing the Tomahawk missiles as a way of leveraging Putin and getting him to come to a peace deal. Unfortunately, Putin is doing the same thing. Putin is vaguely promising that he'll meet, that they'll have a ceasefire, they'll have a peace deal in order to get Trump to back off of these threats. And so I think Putin is trying to play Trump. This happened in August already with that famous summit in Alaska, where Trump thought he had a deal. And then Putin arrives, doesn't do a ceasefire, says he's going to meet with Zelensky, and then backs away from that, embarrassing President Trump with all those leaders in the White House. So this time around, I think President Trump has really got to provide the Tomahawks to Ukraine, put in place some secondary sanctions, and then tell the Ukrainians, don't fire if Putin calls for a ceasefire. But if Putin doesn't go for the ceasefire this time, they're all yours. Yeah. And do you think, you know, giving the Tomahawks to Ukraine, is that going to be seen as escalatory? And what is that going to do with the relationship between President Trump and Putin? And as you mentioned, a potential, you know, peace deal there. The president had a conversation with Putin yesterday, and he wrote about that on Truth Social. And he said this, President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the great accomplishment of peace in the Middle East. I actually believe that the success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the war with Russia and Ukraine. And of course, you know, after that phone call, President Trump said that he and Putin will be meeting in Hungary in the coming weeks for a second summit. Ambassador, I want to get your thoughts on that. I mean, what do you think could come from that meeting? Do you think we'll see a peace deal here? Right. Well, first off, you've got to give President Trump for trying and trying and trying again. He's giving Putin every opportunity now for nine months as president to end this war. Putin has rebuffed him every step of the way. Even at that meeting in Alaska, Putin arrives and says he doesn't want to just keep what he's taken in Ukraine. He wants Ukraine to give up even more territory and he wants it to be demilitarized. So this is Putin really just pushing back on President Trump. What I hope happens here is Rubio sets up a meeting where there is a deal and then Putin and Trump can meet in Budapest and sign a final deal after having consulted with Ukrainians. That would be a good outcome. Unfortunately, we have not heard anything from Putin thus far that indicates that he wants peace, that he's prepared to relinquish his claims on all of Ukraine and live next door to a peaceful, democratic Ukraine. So until we hear that, I think that President Trump is going to have to show a lot more strength and a lot more toughness to get Putin to respond. Ambassador, what's the situation in Russia right now concerning the economy? I know the president mentioned that their economy was on the verge of collapse, but a Kremlin spokesperson pushed back on that, saying that was kind of false. How is the Russian economy holding up after war all these years? Can they continue this fighting? First off, never believe what you hear from a Kremlin spokesperson. Their purpose in communicating is not to tell the truth, it's to influence your thinking. That's why they want to deny that the economy is bad, because the economy actually is bad. President Trump is exactly right on this. Inflation is well in the teens, if not in the 20s. Labor shortage is very acute right now. They have shortages of goods. They have shortages of components. They have negative GDP growth right now, and they are facing a major deficit now in the budget, and they don't have access to foreign currency reserves anymore, so they are depleting those very quickly. This is causing Putin to have to make choices now about how to continue the war and how much he can devote to this. It may be that he's the one that actually needs the ceasefire even more than the Ukrainians do. That's what we have to hope for. We have to put that pressure on to get Putin to that point where he does want a ceasefire. And quickly, before I let you go, if a peace deal doesn't happen, what happens in this war? What happens to Russia? Well, Russia is slowly getting knocked back. If you think about February of 22, when Russia launched this full-scale invasion, and compare to the situation today, Russia is weaker by every measure, politically, economically, militarily, internationally. They are in a much weaker position. Ukraine, on the other hand, is actually stronger than it was. They were not prepared for a full-scale war. Now they've built up a million-man military. They've got billions of dollars of military assistance from many, many countries. They've got financial assistance for the budget. They've shown a great deal of resilience. And now they have the largest, best-trained, and most experienced military in Europe. So the tide has flipped on this, and things are more in Ukraine's favor over time. Yeah, I have about a minute or so left, but what do you think comes from this meeting today with the president and President Zelensky? Well, again, only President Trump knows what he's really planning to do here. But what I hope comes out of this is the two of them reach an agreement that we will provide the tomahawks to Ukraine. They will have that capability. We will also put in place some secondary sanctions on Russia's energy sector, so that we try to get businesses to stop doing business with Russia's energy sector. And then President Trump puts on a full-court press to get Putin to agree to a ceasefire. And if Putin does, we tell the Ukrainians, don't fire the weapons, accept the ceasefire, and now you have a deterrent to prevent future Russian attacks. All right, Ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you so much. Always a pleasure to be with you, sir. Thank you.

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