As top U.S. officials prepare for a meeting with a Russian delegation in Saudia Arabia Sunday, questions have mounted over how the Trump administration will push Moscow to extend a preliminary ceasefire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week agreed to temporarily halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which includes Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who will both travel to Jeddah for the negotiations, said the next step will be to secure a ceasefire over the Black Sea.
Moscow had previously agreed to a similar deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in 2022, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which attempted to secure Ukrainian exports of agricultural products to control global prices, but Putin pulled out of the agreement in 2023.
Security experts remain unconvinced that Putin can be trusted this time around.
But there is another issue that apparently will be on the negotiating table in the Middle East — Ukraine’s nuclear power.
As the president’s focus on a mineral deal with Ukraine appears to have diminished, he has turned his interest to a new business venture, U.S. ‘ownership’ of Kyiv’s ‘electrical supply and nuclear power plants.’
‘American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,’ a joint statement released by Rubio and Waltz said after Trump’s phone call Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
When asked by Fox News Digital how Putin, who has made his interest in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant clear, will respond to Trump’s new ambitions, Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer and author of ‘Putin’s Playbook,’ said she does not think it will go over well.
‘Putin almost certainly is not in favor of this idea and will attempt to sabotage such a deal,’ said Koffler, who briefed NATO officials of Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine years before the 2022 invasion. ‘Moreover, Zelenskyy is unlikely to sign off on such a deal also.
‘Zelenskyy would likely agree to cede control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the U.S., which is currently under Russian control. The Russians will not voluntarily give up control of Zaporizhzhia. If someone tries to take it over by force, they will fight to the bitter end.’
It is unclear when Trump’s interest in acquiring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure began, though it appears to tie into his previous assertions that Ukraine will be better protected if it has American workers and businesses operating within its borders.
The basis of this argument has been debated because there were, and remain, American companies operating in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion. The debate contributed to an Oval Office blowup between Trump and Zelenskyy last month.
Koffler said Putin could view a U.S. takeover of Kyiv’s four nuclear power plants as a ‘backdoor way’ for the U.S. to extend some security guarantees for Ukraine and a ‘clever way of controlling Ukraine’s nuclear capability, which the Russians believe can be militarized.’
‘It would be viewed as a threat to Russia,’ Koffler said.
When asked how U.S. ownership of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could affect negotiations, former CIA Moscow station chief Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital he is not convinced it will have much of an effect on actually securing peace.
‘Show me the deal. We don’t have a deal yet. We have a ceasefire that’s been broken on energy infrastructure,’ Hoffman pointed out. He noted that even after Putin agreed to stop attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure on Tuesday, the following morning a drone strike hit a railway power system in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which led to civilian power outages.
‘It’s just another discussion point. There are so many other issues that are of far greater importance. What Putin would probably do for his negotiating strategy is to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll let you do that United States of America, but I want this in return’. It’s always going to be that way,’ Hoffman added, reflecting on his own negotiations with Russian counterparts during his time with the CIA.
‘He wants Ukraine. He wants to topple the government. That’s his objective,’ Hoffman added. ‘Whatever deals he agrees to in the short term, what he really wants to do is destroy Ukraine’s ability to deter Russia in the future and to give Russia maximum advantage.
‘Right now, he can gain through negotiation what he can’t gain on the battlefield.’
While a number of issues will be discussed, the former CIA Moscow station chief said the real key in accomplishing any kind of ceasefire will need to be an authentic signal from Putin that he actually wants the war to end.
‘The big question that John Ratcliffe has to answer is explain to me why Putin wants a ceasefire. I would argue he doesn’t,’ Hoffman said in reference to the director of the CIA. ‘There is zero indication that he wants one.
‘If he wanted to stop the war and stop the killing of his own people and stop spilling so much blood and treasure, he would have stopped it,’ Hoffman argued.
Ultimately, Hoffman said, when looking at how most major wars have concluded, history suggests the war in Ukraine can only truly end on the battlefield.
‘One side loses, one side wins, or both sides don’t have the means to fight anymore,’ Hoffman said. ‘That’s how the wars end.’