Will Trump succeed in restarting Russia-Ukraine peace talks?

The visit by White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv has left more questions than answers. Details of what was discussed in both meetings are scant, but all participants seem to describe them as “positive”.It is indeed a positive development that US President Donald Trump is trying to jump start negotiations at this point. The biggest problem he faces is that Russia’s position has only hardened.Russia wants Ukraine to be genuinely neutral, with no Western military presence, open or clandestine. It wants to keep previously occupied territories and it insists that Ukraine withdraw from the small part of Donbas that remains in its hands.Moscow demands a cap on the size of the Ukrainian army and on the types of weapons it may possess. It also wants far-right units and paramilitary groups disbanded and outlawed, the legislation limiting the use of the Russian language cancelled and elections to be held in which Russia-friendly parties could compete freely with the pro-Western ones.For Ukraine and its European backers, this would be a hard pill to swallow, all the more so after spending the summer trying to convince the European public and Trump that the “ti...