(Brussels) All in Washington: After the Trump-Puttine summit in Alaska which did not lead to any concrete announcement, European leaders blocked around the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, which they will accompany on Monday at the White House. The American president, however, posed conditions to Ukraine on his Truth Social network, in particular the sale of Crimea.
Donald Trump said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has to receive on Monday, could end the war with Russia “almost immediately”, excluding that Kyiv recovers Crimea control annexed by Moscow in 2014 and enters NATO, as desired by Vladimir Putin.
“The Ukrainian President Zelensky can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No question of recovering the Crimea given by Obama (12 years ago, without a single shot being fired) and no question for Ukraine to enter NATO, “wrote the American president on his Truth Social network.
On Sunday, the “coalition of volunteers”-which brings together Kyiv supports, most major European countries, the European Union, NATO and non-European countries such as Canada-examined what could be the contours of a possible Ukraine-Russia peace agreement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet said he participated in the other countries of the “coalition”, without however indicating whether Mr. Carney would participate in the discussions on Monday.
“The Prime Minister joined the other members of the Coalition to salute the leadership of President Trump, which gives the opportunity to end the Russian illegal war in Ukraine, as well as the opening of the United States to offer security guarantees in order to complete the efforts of the coalition for the long-term peace and security of Ukraine and Europe. “Said Mr. Carney’s office in a statement.
Intense negotiations
The result of intense diplomatic negotiations, Washington’s meeting around the American president, Donald Trump, will be a first since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, and the chief of NATO, Mark Rutte, confirmed their presence.
Photo Anthony Devlin, Agency France-Presse
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
President Zelensky praised this European “unity” during a press briefing in Brussels, adding that he did not know “exactly” what the Russian and American presidents had spoken in Alaska.
Donald Trump’s special emissary, Steve Witkoff, assured that Alaska, Russia had made territorial “concessions” concerning five Ukrainian regions.
“Great progress on Russia. To follow! Published Donald Trump in a lapidary message on his Truth Social network. The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, nevertheless threatened Moscow new sanctions if an agreement on Ukraine is not concluded.
“Lie abject”
After the meeting on Sunday of the “volunteer coalition”, Emmanuel Macron criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who “does not want peace”, but a “capitulation” of Ukraine, according to him.
A declaration qualified as “abject lie” by the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, Sunday on Telegram.
Photo Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, supplied by Reuters
US President Donald Trump, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday.
As for this Monday meeting in Washington on Monday, “our desire is to present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians” and to ask the Americans “to what extent” they are ready to contribute to the security guarantees offered to Ukraine in a possible peace agreement, the French president explained.
Returning from Alaska, Trump spoke of a solution inspired by article 5 of NATO, apart from the framework of the alliance considered by Moscow as an existential threat to its borders.
Mr. Zelensky welcomed the “historic” decision of the United States on security guarantees on Sunday.
According to the Italian Prime Minister, it is a question of defining a collective security clause which would allow Ukraine to obtain the support “of all its partners, including the United States”, in the event of a new attack.
No ceasefire
These diplomatic initiatives intervene after a summit on Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, having led to any cease-fire agreement.
Without commitments by Vladimir Putin on this point, Donald Trump said preferred a global agreement, while remaining evasive on his content.
He also supports a proposal from Russia strengthening his presence in eastern Ukraine, an AFP official on Saturday for telephone exchanges between Donald Trump and European leaders.
According to this anonymous source, the Russian president “asks in fact that Ukraine leaves the Donbass” and gives in this territory bringing together the regions of Donetsk and Louhansk, in eastern Ukraine. He also offers a Front freezing in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporijjia, in the south of the country.
A few months after launching its invasion of Ukraine, Russia had proclaimed in September 2022 the annexation of these four Ukrainian regions, but its troops still control no entire.
Mr. Zelensky has so far rejected any territorial concession.
Tipartite summit?
Donald Trump also mentioned a tripartite summit with MM. Putin and Zelensky if “everything works well” when he received the Ukrainian president, six months after humiliating him in the oval office, during a television scene that had amazed the world.
Such a meeting must take place “as quickly as possible,” insisted Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday. But the Ukrainian president expressed his pessimism, seeing “no indication from Russia that the tripartite summit will take place”.
Photo Simon Wohlfahrt, agency France-Presse
Ursula von der Leyen
After three and a half years of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War, the Russian army occupied approximately 20 % of the Ukrainian territory, especially almost all of the Louhansk region and a large part of that of Donetsk, where its progression has recently accelerated. This is not the case with the regions of Zaporijjia and Kherson, whose main cities are under Ukrainian control.
On the ground, hostilities continue. Kyiv and Moscow mutually attacked drones in the night from Saturday to Sunday, killing several people.
And in that from Sunday to Monday, the Ukrainian authorities reported 13 injured in Russian strikes in Kharkiv (East) and in the Soumy region (northeast).
