October 26, 2026
DIANE FRANCIS
Donald Trump puts the cart before the horse by dangling riches and scrapping sanctions before Vladimir Putin has done anything to stop his war. A smart dealmaker would have withheld money to pressure Putin to quit because his army is mired on the battlefield and his country is going broke. Instead, Trump offers deals and money, prolonging the conflict. Bluntly speaking, Trump and his negotiating team are sellouts, which is why, on October 9, Putin went even further and proposed an audacious trilateral closed-door summit with Russia, China, and the US to carve up Ukraine and the world. At the same time, Putin’s team published an audacious map (below) showing its intention to turn Ukraine into a Russian-controlled buffer zone, except for a sliver along Poland’s border. On October 21, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky leaped in with a solution rooted in reality: “We have to freeze the frontline, and I think this is [a] real way to end this war. Call it a ceasefire. Freeze and stop.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio applauded Zelensky’s suggestion to freeze the conflict and said it was needed because “this war will not end with a military victory for either side, making a negotiated settlement necessary to stop further casualties and destruction.” A freeze calls Putin’s bluff, and a ceasefire will allow Ukrainians to get through the winter. A pause will buy critical time to replenish military equipment and weapons, to repair electricity networks, restore water supplies, protect communities, and rebuild damaged infrastructure. According to a Ukrainian official: “We are hanging by a thread. Russia has 700 ballistic missiles left to use, which can destroy all our infrastructure, and if temperatures drop, we are screwed.”
Putin now pursues two diplomatic tracks. One proposed trilateral is between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States, including technical talks, then meetings between their leaders to begin Nov. 4, the day after the US midterms. The other track is Moscow’s attempt to leap into the geopolitical big leagues. Putin proposes to bring together Trump, Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping — without including Ukraine or Europe. His objective is to recruit China to help him “convince” Iran to stop its war, rescue Trump, and then he will cut a favorable deal in Ukraine.
However, neither China nor the US has agreed to meet. It would be foolish to do so because it would elevate Putin, and his impoverished and battered nation, to superpower status. It would also allow Putin to shift attention away from his failure to conquer Ukraine in a matter of weeks, and to misrepresent himself to his serfs as a powerful victorious leader of a superpower.
China has cards. It has leverage over Moscow because it provides Chinese weapons and electronics for both wars in Ukraine and Iran. But China also has enormous commercial interests in Europe, America, and around the world. This is why President Xi Jinping will stay above the fray and continue to profit as Russia declines. The two countries’ relationship cooled after 2022, when Putin declared that he and Xi were “friends without limits” days before he invaded Ukraine and upended the world order. Putin never told Xi ahead of time. A weak Russia will provide an opportunity for Beijing to seize back vast lands expropriated long ago by Czars.
During Moscow’s recent rampages, China has kept its distance. It has not officially recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea nor the occupied Ukrainian oblasts, maintaining an official stance that respects state sovereignty and territorial integrity. It has also publicly distanced itself from Moscow’s nuclear saber-rattling and warned, along with India, against the use of nuclear weapons.
Ukraine also has cards. It decimates Russia’s military and economy because of its technological superiority, and won’t be blindsided again by Elon Musk’s little trick of sabotaging Starlink or the Pentagon’s interruption of intelligence warnings before Russian bombings. This is because Ukraine will build guardrails and is supercharging its alliance with Europe to build a “digital fortress” for all of the continent. They are building defense and surveillance systems, and collaborating in space, satellites, intelligence, air defense, and weapons production.
Ukraine and Europe, or any American “ally,” now know that they cannot rely on America’s Trump or its technocracy, in light of recent betrayals. They are turbo-charging the replication of American tech, safeguards, and tools. In terms of warfare, Ukraine’s Silicon Valley is already superior and capable of retaliation by “sabotaging” US tech giants or any enemy. And it may clandestinely unleash payback soon if it hasn’t already. Stay tuned.
Europe must also repel a new attempt by Trump to grab the $300-billion worth of Russian central bank assets that were mostly frozen in European banks after the 2022 invasion. In recent days, the US officially asked for these funds to help it “negotiate” with Russia. In other words, Trump wants to use the funds to bribe Putin and get a peace deal. But the money is earmarked for Ukraine’s reconstruction, and Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, publicly rejected the cash grab: “This is our business, and we are deciding over it.”
The bottom line is that Putin’s suggestions about superpower trilaterals and repatriating frozen funds must all be rejected out of hand. As Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said: “A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the US, and Russia could help end the war sooner. But a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China, and the US would do only the opposite: encourage Putin to continue this war.”
