La nueva Casa Blanca tiene una oportunidad en estas horas de tomar conciencia sobre el sentido real que ha tenido la guerra de Ucrania y la calaña de con quién deben tramitar un posible cierre del conflicto. El autócrata ruso Vladimir Putin dejó en claro que no aceptará un cese del fuego sin graves condiciones, aún a sabiendas de que se trata de un efímero éxito que pretende exhibir Donald Trump, quien ha volcado EE.UU. hacia la orilla rusa.

Moscú pretende una garantía concreta de una victoria contundente sobre el país europeo. A eso se refiere el concepto de “arreglo pacífico duradero”. No es tanto por lo que importa Ucrania para Rusia, sino por el valor que el régimen de Putin atribuye a esa victoria como efecto en todo el vecindario de su país. Bien lejos de los pretextos sobre el avance de la OTAN, que sí existió como una descomunal falla occidental, la guerra tuvo el propósito de edificar una influencia absoluta de Rusia sobre su entorno. Respondía a una necesidad objetiva para aumentar su peso político y salir de la trampa de su realidad de potencia mediana regional.

Si efectivamente EE.UU., como proclama, pretende un nuevo Yalta, en el espejo del que reunió en la posguerra a Churchill, Stalin y Roosevelt, repartiendo esta vez el mundo con chinos y rusos, Moscú reclama que ese paso comience ya con Ucrania. Sus demandas son básicas. Los territorios tomados no serán devueltos; no habrá fuerzas internacionales garantizando la paz; se desarmará el ejército de Kiev y quedará de ese modo bajo la manda rusa que era la intención original del conflicto.

Las pretensiones de Moscú, que EE.UU. no parece poder revertir, son precisamente las que los europeos no están dispuestos a aceptar. Saben que el precedente de un país armado avanzando sobre territorios soberanos del continente e ignorando la juricidad internacional condena a la UE a su desaparición. Un objetivo que EE.UU. comparte con Rusia , al riesgo de fulminar la hegemonía norteamericana. China, por cierto, celebra a la distancia.

President Donald Trump, speaking from the Oval Office Thursday, downplayed an upcoming nuclear summit in Beijing between Iran, Russia, and China, three chief adversaries of the U.S.

The discussions, first confirmed by the Chinese foreign ministry Thursday and which come just days after Iran rebuffed Trump’s push to engage in nuclear negotiations, will coincide with a United Nations Security Council meeting regarding Tehran’s expansion of near-weapons-grade uranium. 

Trump suggested perhaps Beijing, Moscow and Tehran will be having their own discussions on «de-escalation.»

«Well, maybe they’re going to talk about non-nuclear problems. Maybe they’re going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons,» Trump told reporters.

TRUMP ‘HOPES’ PUTIN AGREES TO CEASEFIRE AS MOSCOW SIGNALS NO TRUCE YET

Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin once engaged in «strong» talks about nuclear weapons and said he believes, had he won the 2016 election, further Russian denuclearization would have been on the table. 

«I think I would have made a deal with Putin on de-escalation, denuclearization,» Trump said. «But we would have de-escalated nuclear weapons because the power of nuclear weapons is so great and so devastating.»

The president also claimed that China would «catch us in five years» because of its rapid development of its nuclear stockpiles, though this would be far sooner than other experts have warned. 

The Pentagon in 2024 assessed that China is believed to have 600 nuclear weapons, up from the low 200s in 2020. But, in a report Wednesday, experts with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said claims that China will be a «peer» or «near peer» with the U.S. in the near future were a «gross exaggeration.» 

POLAND CALLS ON US TO PLACE NUKES WITHIN ITS BORDERS AMID RUSSIA THREAT

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House March 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

«There is no evidence that China’s ongoing nuclear expansion will result in parity with the U.S. arsenal,» the report said. «Even the worst-case 2023 projection of 1,500 warheads by 2035 amounts to less than half of the current U.S. nuclear stockpile.»

Russia is believed to have 5,580 nuclear weapons, and the U.S. is reported to have 5,225, while China comes in at a distant third, according to the Arms Control Association. 

Concerns over North Korea’s largely unchecked nuclear program have also continued to mount in recent years, particularly after Pyongyang formed closer ties with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

«It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number,» Trump said. 

«You don’t need them to that extent,» he added, noting the immense destruction even one nuclear weapon could inflict. 

North Korea is estimated to have 50 nuclear weapons, which Trump noted is «a lot.»

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, supervises artillery firing drills in North Korea March 7, 2024.  (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

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But he also pointed to the positive relationship he had with Kim Jong Un during his first presidency and suggested that relationship could extend during his second term. Trump appeared to suggest there could be room for nuclear negotiations. 

«I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens,» Trump told reporters. «But certainly he’s a nuclear power.»

¿Qué es Huawei?

Algunas naciones europeas han seguido el ejemplo de Washington y han prohibido el equipo de Huawei. Foto: Reuters

Los «regalos»

El segundo escándalo de corrupción