While European leaders talked about a successful meeting with Donald Trump on Monday, another narrative abounded in Russian media.
On Telegram, Russian military bloggers shared a video of what appears to be an armored vehicle with Russian and American flags flying side by side. The video came from the state-controlled media outlet Russia Today.
- A captured American M113 armored vehicle with Russian and American flags storms into battle near the village of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhia, claims military blogger Swodki to his over 200,000 followers on the messaging service Telegram.
- Clumsy
The signaling value is clear - Russian media portrays the meeting as positive for Russia.
The state-controlled newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote the article on Tuesday, among other things: Zelensky's dead end: Trump argues bitterly with Merz about Ukraine in the White House and calls Putin.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron put forward the boring assumption of first a ceasefire, then everything else. And they were harshly rejected by Trump. Then the American president interrupted negotiations with the Europeans to call Vladimir Putin, the newspaper writes.
There are no constructive proposals regarding Ukraine coming from European countries, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"We have only seen an aggressive escalation of the situation and rather clumsy attempts to change the position of the American president," Lavrov said of the White House meeting.
- Blow to the face
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated on Sputnik radio that a map of Ukraine, which was displayed at the White House during Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit, was a slap in the face to the Ukrainian president.
"I think that bringing him completely to his senses will be very difficult for anyone, but to shake him up a little, to demonstrate to both him and all those who stand behind him how much they have lost, how much they have lost, how much has slipped away from them," Zakharova said, according to the Russian state media Tass.
During Monday's meeting, the parties did not reach a concrete agreement, but Trump and Zelensky discussed, among other things, security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukrainian investments in American weapons, and a future meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
It is unclear what the two presidents talked about behind closed doors, but Russian media claim that Trump did not say anything that could be negative for Russia.
Russia Today's political analyst, Nadezjda Romanenko, believes Trump's behavior is a signal.
- Trump's behavior - especially his decision not to repeat Kyiv's or Brussels' messages in the press conference after the meeting - is a signal, she writes under the headline EU and Kyiv lose, and Trump is my witness.
Does not impose new sanctions
Russian media places particular emphasis on the fact that the United States has not imposed new sanctions on Russia after the summit.
- Trump has even gone from demanding a ceasefire to supporting direct peace negotiations - a stance that is better for Moscow, writes Russia Today.
Trump announced after the meeting that there will be a summit between Putin and Zelensky, but Putin has not yet given his public approval.
Whether the meeting between Zelensky and Putin will take place in the near future is still uncertain.
