The Staging of Peace - How Trump and Putin Are Making a Mockery of the World

A summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is on the horizon. The details? Still unclear. The timing? Maybe next week. The location? "To be announced later." It sounds more like the teaser for a boxing match - not the attempt to end one of Europe’s bloodiest wars since World War II. And yet that is precisely the setup the Kremlin presented on Thursday: a "bilateral meeting at the highest level," allegedly "at the request of the American side." What sounds like diplomacy is, in reality, a power play between two men who have spent years showing they care as little about genuine peace as they do about honesty, transparency, or reliability. Russia has been destroying Ukraine for three years, Trump has been back in office for just over six months - and yet the situation on the front lines has hardly changed. Russia continues to gain ground slowly but steadily. Ukraine continues to lose lives, cities, infrastructure - and increasingly, hope. And while the West insists it “stands behind Kyiv,” its resolve is starting to look more like an empty gesture. What is emerging here is diplomatic theater without substance. Trump’s announced "deadline" to Putin - that the killing must stop by Friday or new sanctions would follow - is being mentioned in the media, but no longer taken seriously. No one believes in real consequences. Not even Putin.

The spectacle becomes even more cynical when compared to the polling data published by Gallup on Thursday. According to the poll, around 70% of Ukrainians now want a negotiated settlement - a dramatic reversal from 2022, when three-quarters said they would “fight to victory.” These numbers reflect a reality that barely plays a role at Western conference tables: exhaustion, despair, distrust. According to the UN, more than 12,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the invasion. The front line stretches over 1,000 kilometers, from the northeast to the southeast - a trench war with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. And while the Ukrainian population now seems ready to talk peace, Moscow continues to ignore every offer of dialogue. For Putin, there is only one solution: capitulation. For Trump, there seems to be only one role: that of the powerful mediator who mediates nothing but stages a performance. It has long been clear that neither side - neither Putin nor Trump - has any genuine interest in peace. For Putin, the war is a geopolitical project, an imperial dream at the expense of a neighboring people. For Trump, it is a theatrical prop - a means of portraying himself as the "great dealmaker" allegedly capable of solving conflicts he neither understands nor is willing to solve. What unites them is their contempt for rules, processes, and institutions. Instead of clear negotiations, we get delayed announcements. Instead of results: photo ops. Instead of diplomacy: ego shows.

And the rest of the world? It watches. Even the announcement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may not even be invited - although Trump supposedly wants to speak with him as well - barely causes a stir anymore. It has become an absurd performance in which even central questions like the presence of the warring party Ukraine remain unanswered. The global public is being deliberately kept in the dark - with the result that nothing feels credible anymore. And yet hardly anyone dares to call out this theater. No Western head of state, no leading voice in political discourse is asking the obvious question: How long are we going to stand by and watch as these two men make a mockery of the world? Because that is exactly what is happening: A dictator and an authoritarian president who treats democracy as a matter of opinion are meeting “soon” to “possibly” discuss peace - with no agenda, no guarantees, no involvement of those affected. The diplomatic world acts as if this must simply be awaited. The media reports dutifully instead of calling the farce by its name. And those who are truly fighting for an end to the war, who defend international norms, human rights, or even a functioning international law, are pushed to the sidelines - without a microphone, without a stage, without a voice. It is a situation that is not just cynical. It is dangerous. Because while the performance plays out, people are dying. Every day. And it is long past time not just to document that, but to say it out loud.

Investigative journalism requires courage, conviction – and your support.