London-Ukraine and his allies on Sunday they rushed to respond to the apparent change of President Donald Trump towards the hard line of Vladimir Putin after his summit in Alaska.
The European leaders announced that they would join Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in Washington on Monday while they seek to navigate the new approach to the United States to end the war after Trump pointed out that he was reversing his insistence on a high fire and, instead, he pursues a permanent peace agreement, apparently aligning the United States with the Kremlin.
On Sunday, Trump seemed to respond to the reports that he could also support the demands of Putin from Ukraine to renounce his eastern region of Donbas, an additional alarm source between kyiv and his European sponsors.
“If I got Russia to renounce Moscow as part of the agreement, the false news and his partner, the radical left Democrats, they would say that I made a terrible mistake and a bad business,” he published about Truth Social.
As Ukraine and Europe solve the best way to move forward, a series of leaders in the continent announced that they would join Zelenskyy in Washington. Maybe they will hope to make sure you have not repeated your last oval office meeting, and prevent Zelenskyy from staying just to face any pressure to access Putin’s demands.
The offices of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von de Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would travel to Washington on Monday to meet Trump. They will join the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to Reuters.
“The trip will serve as an information exchange “with Trump, said Merz’s office.” Conversations will address, among other things, security guarantees, territorial problems and continuous support to Ukraine in their defense against Russian aggression. “
Zelenskyy thanked the European Union for its support on Sunday, standing next to Von de Leyen in Brussels, where you are ready to attend a virtual meeting of the so -called “Willing Coalition”, which includes more than 30 countries that work together to support Ukraine.
“Washington is with us,” he said, while he reiterated that the fire was needed to work in a final agreement.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said “Meet The Press” of NBC News that a high temporary fire “is not out of the table”, despite Trump’s comments one day before.
Any agreement would have to include “some security guarantees for Ukraine,” said Rubio.
Meanwhile, the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff said that Putin had agreed in Alaska to allow US and European allies to offer Ukraine security guarantees that resemble NATO collective defense mandate as part of an eventual peace agreement.
“We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer similar protection to article 5, which is one of the true reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” Witkoff said in the “State of the Union” of CNN.
Witkoff seemed to suggest that Russia had also agreed “legislative consecration” promising “not to go after any other territory when the peace agreement is encoded.”
Trump seemed to have taken a step towards the wishes of Ukraine and Europe on that subject in recent days.
Trump was directly involved with Zelenskyy and European leaders by phone at dawn on Saturday morning over the United States that participate in a possible security guarantee similar to NATO for Ukraine as part of an agreement with Russia, two senior administration officials and three sources familiar with discussions to NBC News.
“European and American security guarantees were discussed,” said a source familiar with discussions. “US troops on the ground were not discussed or entertained by [Trump]. “
The security guarantees would be made on stage that Russia had to invade Ukraine again after a possible peace agreement, the sources said. The sources said that these protections, as discussed by the White House, would not include the NATO membership, despite the fact that European leaders say in a joint statement on Saturday that Ukraine should have the right to seek the NATO membership.
But it was clear that the summit had left Ukraine feeling restless.
For civilians in the field, even under the Russian attack, even when the diplomatic maneuver was developed, it was not only the substance but the optics of Alaska’s conversations that caused frustration.
“I hoped that the United States would not spread the red carpet to the enemy,” resident of kyiv, Natalya Lypei, said on Saturday. “How can you welcome a tyrant like this?”
