London – If you want to give the leader of Ukraine of the same welcome, made the Vladimir Putin de Russia, then President Donald Trump may need a larger red carpet.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will bring heavyweight reinforcements to the White House on Monday, a troop of European leaders who probably hope to make no repeated their last confrontation of the oval office in a moment of even greater bets for their country and the continent.
The extraordinary public seeks between Zelenskyy, Trump and vice president JD Vance in February surprised the European powers.
Trump accused a Waspish Zelenskyy of “Play with World War II” and lack of respect for the White House when the cameras rolled, before shortening the meeting and telling the Ukrainian leader Go back “when you are ready for peace.”
He returns on Monday flanked by leaders of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Finland, in addition to the heads of the European Union and NATO, a sample of solidarity and an effort to ensure that Europe has a real voice in peace conversations after being excluded from Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska.
“It is a demonstration of European unit and support for Ukraine precisely to avoid what happened in February that is repeated,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director of Europe in Eurasia Group, to NBC News.
He added that the European side would be “anxious to prevent Zelenskyy from being intimidated to make concessions,” after Trump fed a new alarm among Ukraine allies apparently leaning towards the vision of the Kremlin of things after his conversations with Putin.
The US president offered no reason to think that he had changed in the hours prior to the busy White House meeting on Monday.
Trump put the responsibility for Zelenskyy, saying that he could “end the war almost immediately, if he wants”, and that “he had not entered NATO by Ukraine” and “not recover” the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed illegally in 2014.
This public pressure has fed fears that Zelenskyy’s heat can increase to accept territorial concessions in exchange for a peace agreement.
Therefore, the Ukrainian leader will not enter alone.
In the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the head of NATO, Mark Rutte, and Finnish president Alexander Stubb, the European contingent will feature three men seen as successful to obtain Trump’s favor.
They will expect to use that influence to reverse the apparent advances that Putin made in Alaska.
The Washington meeting will also provide leaders with the opportunity to discuss future security guarantees for Ukraine, which the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff floated Sunday as potentially similar to article 5 of NATO.
Ukraine hoped to use the meeting to negotiate a safety guarantee of IRONCLAD and convince Trump that a temporary fire is necessary to begin real peace conversations, said a Ukrainian source familiar with the objectives to NBC News. Security guarantees must be obligations at the level of treaty, said the source, which requires the approval of the Senate.
Rahman said that the nature of security guarantees was “absolutely key to preventing Russian aggression in the future”, saying that Europeans would travel to Washington in the hope of “specifying the detail of what the participation of the United States will be in the future security of Ukraine.”
Citing a deadly strike in Jharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia continued their attacks against their country, even when the conversations were ongoing to “maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as humiliate diplomatic efforts.”
And in kyiv, many feel that granting territory as part of the broader agreement of La Paz that Trump is now chasing would not end at all the war, only emboldened Moscow to boost even more.
“It is precisely this so -called Putin long -term peace that would allow him to continue fighting war,” said Oleksiy Gontentko, legislator of the Ukrainian opposition party “European solidarity.” “The fastest step is to establish a stop first, and only then to start negotiations.”
European leaders seem to share that instinct.
“If we are weak today with Russia, we will prepare the conflicts of tomorrow and affect the Ukrainians and, do not make mistakes, can also affect us.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Sunday.
If February was a fiasco, Monday is the Do-Over, this time with chaperones.
Ostap Hunkevych, The Association press, Kristen Welker and Megan Lebowitz contributed.
