The first month of the Trump administration has brought rapid changes to the war in Ukraine.
On February 12, a phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin, reported to have lasted 90 minutes, ended nearly three years of high-level diplomatic silence between the United States and Russia. While the exact content of the discussion is not known, in a Truth Social post following the call, Trump wrote that “we agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations [sic].”
This sudden high-level engagement between the two presidents runs contrary to the coordinated efforts by the Biden administration and most of Europe to politically isolate Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The same day as the phone call, in remarks to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was “unrealistic” before stating that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.”
While FCNL does not endorse militarized security architectures like NATO – wherein countries aim to assure their security through threats of military force - Ukraine’s rights to autonomy and self-determination must be respected. In a Truth Social post, President Trump mocked President Zelensky and implied threats to Ukrainian sovereignty, “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left [sic].” External actors cannot trade away or divide up a sovereign state’s territory.
A few days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Saudi Arabia. Following the meeting, the State Department released a statement, which said that “President Trump wants to stop the killing; the United States wants peace and is using its strength in the world to bring countries together. President Trump is the only leader in the world who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to that.”
FCNL welcomes diplomatic engagement and negotiations, and joined with other Quaker agencies in calling for “peacemaking dialogue” in 2022. FCNL welcomes direct diplomacy with Russia —in fact, it is essential. FCNL affirms that “by definition, peacemaking often involves engaging with people making war and understanding the reasons they do so.”
Any peace process which does not involve the Ukrainian people, or their elected government, will not lead to a just or lasting peace.
However, not all diplomacy is of equal value. And any peace process which does not involve the Ukrainian people, or their elected government, will not lead to a just or lasting peace. Just as President Trump must not forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza to use Gazan territory for commercial development, the so-called “great powers” of the Cold War era cannot unilaterally decide the fates of other nations. Instead, Ukraine must be involved in any conversations about its own future.
Peace is more just, equitable, and durable when affected communities are meaningfully involved in peacemaking processes. This initial outreach between nations is essential but insufficient. A peace process that incorporates the voices and perspectives of all stakeholders, including civil society in Ukraine and Russia, must follow to ensure a true and lasting peace. Grounded in the Quaker peace testimony, FCNL will persist in seeking to “make real the peaceful alternatives to armed conflict, which, with God’s help, are possible.”
