Breaking the Ice: Trump and Putin’s Ice Hockey Game to End WW3
Are Putin and Trump going to end the Russia-Ukraine War with a game of ice hockey?
It’s highly unlikely. But this is what the two leaders agreed after a reported 90-minute call on Tuesday.
There’s two ways of looking at this. You can be all gooey and endearing, applauding the ability of sport to bring us together with a tear in your eye. Or, you can relent and curse the fact that a war which has already claimed one million lives is being settled with an ice hockey match.
Take two guesses which side I’m on.
“Gambling with World War 3” – is ice hockey really the peacemaker?
Don’t get me wrong, I love sport. I do indeed melt into a gooey internationalist when the Olympics graces our summer every four years. And don’t even get me started on the World Cup, and the Euros. My summer memories are mentally segmented and ranked according to how much I enjoyed each World Cup. Ironically, the Russia 2018 World Cup is right up there.
But come on. Is this really the sort of dialogue we need when we are, in Trump’s words, “gambling with World War 3”?
We’ve all heard the stories of troops laying down their weapons in World War I on Christmas Day for a British Empire v Germany football match. Perhaps an ice hockey match is the non-European take on this.
However, I still find it remarkably insensitive. As of August 2024, 3.7 million Ukrainians had been displaced. Millions of Ukrainian families remain in their homes, not knowing if they’ll live to see tomorrow. And yet, here we are, wondering if a simple game of ice hockey could find peace.
How misjudged is that? This war has raged on for three years, turning the world upside down and claiming the lives of immeasurably many innocent civilians. If I’d have known an ice hockey match on American soil could’ve solved the problem, I’d have suggested it three years ago.
A failed agreement from the start
Of course, we have to accept that this was a secret call. We will likely never know what was discussed, so making a headline out of ice hockey is a good way to dodge media spotlight.
But whether the whole ice hockey rubbish is a ruse or not, it is detracting from the main headline: the discussion was an abject disaster.
Trump supposedly managed to get Putin to agree a 30-day ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure targets. This sounds positive.
Don’t let the allure of sport detract from the facts. Hours after agreeing a temporary ceasefire, Putin went off and broke the agreement. Categorically, that is a failed agreement.
Trump has repeatedly said Putin respects him like he didn’t respect Joe Biden. So what message does this give off? Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle – and he’s too naive to see it. He thinks he’s got Putin in the palm of his hand, only for the Russian to stab him in the back.
Is ice hockey really the best we’ve got?
Sport is a powerful thing. I will always remember the 1980 Moscow Olympics (from history lessons, alas), when America boycotted the Games in a Cold War-inspired protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Most people don’t know the ins and outs of a conflict until it permeates their everyday lives. Putting the political into sport is one way of doing this.
And so we come full circle. Hold a game of ice hockey to show your country compatriots that you’re making progress in peace talks – only for Putin to make Trump look silly hours later.
These early signs should all show that this is completely absurd. The meeting failed – the temporary ceasefire lasted mere hours before Putin brutalised it.
Trump has an awful lot of work to do to deliver his promise of ending this war – and to do so without carving up Ukraine’s backyard and handing it to Russia.
Unfortunately, this ice hockey episode confirms what I suspected of Trump. He’s not a serious negotiator. It’s all stunts over substance for the US President – including him and JD Vance making a mockery of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on live TV.
Trump needs to break the ice – not play hockey on it.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/kremlin.ru
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