Image source, EPA
-
- Author, George Wright
- Author’s title, BBC News
Several European leaders reported that they will travel with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, for their meeting with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in the White House on Monday.
This happens after Trump failed to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on Friday.
Since then, the US President has declared that he wants to avoid the possibility of a high fire in Ukraine in favor of a permanent peace agreement.
Among those who travel to Washington are British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; and NATO general secretary Mark Rutte.
To guarantee a high fire in Ukraine had been one of Trump’s main demands before meeting with Putin, but then published on social networks that “they often do not support” and that it would be better “to go directly to a peace agreement.”
European leaders have cautiously reacted to the result of the Trump-Poutin meeting, trying not to criticize the change of direction despite their sustained support for a high fire.
As reported, Putin presented Trump a peace offer that would demand that Ukraine retire from the Donetsk region in Donbás, in exchange for Russia to freeze the front lines in Zaporiyia and Jersón.
Russia claims Donbás as Russian territory, controlling most of Luhansk and approximately 70% of Donetsk.
The Crimean Peninsula in 2014 was also illegally annexed, eight years before launching its large -scale invasion of Ukraine.
Image source, Reuters
The president of Ukraine has previously ruled out yield the control of Donbás, composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. He states that it could be used as a springboard for future Russian attacks.
On Sunday, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Putin had agreed in Alaska that the United States would provide Ukraine “solid security guarantees that I would describe as revolutionary.”
Witkoff told CNN that the conversations in Alaska “reached an agreement that the US, and other European nations could effectively offer a language similar to article 5 to cover a security guarantee.”
Article 5 of NATO establishes that an attack on a member is considered an attack on all.
Ukraine at the negotiating table
Putin opposes Ukraine joining NATO, and Witkoff said this agreement could be an alternative if “Ukrainians could live with that.”
Witkoff also said that Russia had “made some concessions at the table” on territory.
He added that the Donetsk region constitutes an “important discussion” and that, according to him, it will take place on Monday.
The US BBC partner, CBS, cited diplomatic sources who said European officials were worried that Trump could try to press Zelensky to accept the terms discussed with Russia in Alaska.
Von der Leyen met with Zelensky in Brussels on Sunday. In a subsequent press conference, he said that any peace agreement must include security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe, and that international borders cannot be modified by force.
“These decisions must be made by Ukraine, and only by that country,” he said. “These decisions should not be made without Ukraine being present at the negotiating table.”
Zelensky reiterated that the Ukrainian Constitution makes it impossible to grant territory to Russia and that the issue must only be discussed by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia in a trilateral summit.
The Ukrainian leader reiterated the need for a high fire before working quickly in a “final agreement.”
Monday’s meeting at the White House will be the first of Zelensky from a heated public exchange in the Oval Office in February, when Trump told him that he was more “grateful” for US support and accused him of “playing with the third World War.”
Then they ordered Zelensky to leave the White House.
It seemed to reconcile with Trump in April, in what the White House described as a “very productive” meeting 15 minutes before attending the funeral of Pope Francis.
Ukraine also signed an agreement on minerals that gave the United States a financial participation in the country, and Kiyv made it clear that he was willing to pay for US weapons.
But there will have been concern in Kiyv and other European capitals after the meeting between Trump and Putin on Friday.
The Russian president, who faces an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, got off his plane and stepped on a red carpet to be warmly received by Trump, who later said they have a “fantastic relationship.”
Subscribe here To our new newsletter to receive every Friday a selection of our best content of the week.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and act..
