A senior Ukrainian lawmaker who nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize has withdrawn it, as peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow slip under the radar and the president keeps his sights fixed on the Middle East.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday he had “lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
Merezhko originally nominated Trump for the prize in November, but said he submitted his nomination withdrawal on Monday morning.
Trump returned to the White House in January pledging to end Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II in just 24 hours. But as the weeks and months dragged on, optimism for a quick deal evaporated and the Republican—a self-styled “peacemaker-in-chief”—grew overtly frustrated with the glacial pace of progress.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Ukraine agreed to a U.S. proposal back in March. Russia has, to date, not inked its consent.
Ukrainian officials and international observers have watched Trump engineer a rapprochement with the Kremlin, the White House looking reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia even as Trump publicly floated a feeling that Russia was “tapping” the American negotiators along.
Trump is “is evading—he is dodging—the need to impose sanctions on Russia,” Merezhko said.
Oleksandr Merezhko
Trump said it late May it would take a fortnight to work out if Moscow was stringing him along. If Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling, Trump warned at the time, “we’ll respond a little bit differently.” The deadline lapsed approxmately two weeks ago.
“I don’t think Putin took the two weeks seriously,” John Foreman, a former British defense attaché to both Moscow and Kyiv, previously told Newsweek.
Merezhko said Trump had “virtually no reaction” to recent large-scale strikes on the Ukrainian capital, adding: “He has chosen the path of appeasement.”
Trump, who touched down in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday for NATO‘s largest summit of the year, landed in the wake of announcing a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. “PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!,” he added in a post to his Truth Social platform.
Iran denied breaking the fragile agreement as Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, ordered the Israeli military to “respond forcefully to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire with intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.”
Ukrainian officials are concerned about U.S. attention and weapons being diverted to the Middle East, not to mention the impact on the oil markets, Merezhko said.
A spike in oil prices because of fighting in the Middle East could benefit Russia, something Ukraine will be keen to avoid. The European Union will not continue with plans to press on Russia a new price cap on oil exports while fears swirl over soaring oil prices, Politico reported on Friday.
“EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN,” Trump said in a post online on Monday. “I’M WATCHING.”
Ukraine said on Monday it had attacked an oil depot in Russia’s Rostov region overnight.
Pakistan’s government said on Friday it would formally recommend Trump for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize because of what it called the president’s “decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership” during a recent spate of violence between Pakistan and India. India has played down Trump’s role in ceasefire talks.
Trump is a “genuine peacemaker,” Pakistan said, lauding his “commitment to conflict resolution through dialogue.”
