US President Donald Trump has insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s real fear is not of Europe, but of US military power.
In a statement, Trump said that NATO is merely an extension of US influence and claimed that Putin is actually afraid of the military power built up during his first term in office.
Since the beginning of this year, peace talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia have entered their third round.
However, the fourth round of talks scheduled for early March had to be postponed due to US and Israeli military operations against Iran.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that talks with the US on sanctions and security guarantees were underway.
However, he insisted that a solution could only be reached through a direct meeting with Putin.
In the meantime, Trump continued to claim that Zelenskyy was not serious about achieving peace, unlike Putin who was supposedly ready to negotiate.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump described Zelenskyy as the main obstacle to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
The negotiations are now at a critical phase as the US begins to shift its focus to the conflict in the Middle East.
This shift is seen to give Russia an advantage through rising oil prices, reduced sanctions pressure, and reduced supplies of ammunition from the US to Kyiv.
Furthermore, Moscow's skeptical attitude towards the involvement of European countries in the negotiations is becoming increasingly clear when the Kremlin rejected the proposal without solid reasons.
Ukraine and international experts are skeptical of Russia's true intentions, they see Moscow's diplomatic moves as a strategy to delay sanctions without any real intention of stopping the war.
In this context, it is clear that the peace talks are not just discussions at the negotiating table, but a battleground for power between the US and Russia.
