Visit to the White House | Zelensky and Trump remain camped on their positions

(Washington) a few hours before a crucial meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump exposed opposite visions on Monday by a possible way to the conflict in Ukraine, where Russia continued its deadly strikes.

Will we assist in the oval office for a new public humiliation of the Ukrainian president as on February 28?

Or will they manage to find common ground, under the pressure of European leaders who also move to the White House to be one around Volodymyr Zelensky?

The latter repeated on Monday that it was up to Russia to “put an end to this war that it sparked” and that it should not be “rewarded” for invading her country in February 2022.

Donald Trump previously wrote to him on his social social network that the Ukrainian head of state “could end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wanted, or [pouvait] Continue to fight ”.

Costume

The American president, who has never attributed the responsibility of the conflict to Moscow, obtained no concession from Vladimir Putin after a meeting on Friday in Alaska.

On the other hand, he exhibited very clearly on Sunday evening on his social network on his social network what he expected from Kyiv: to give up Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014, as well as to adherence to NATO.

In a demonstration of exceptional solidarity, Volodymyr Zelensky is accompanied in the American capital by 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, the chief of NATO Mark Rutte and the president of the European Commission Ursula Leyen.

The Ukrainian president will first hold “a preparatory meeting” with European leaders, who will then go to the White House.

Volodymyr Zelensky will get there separately and will be received by Donald Trump around 1 p.m. Then follow an extended meeting with Europeans.

Some media are already speculating on the outfit of Volodymyr Zelensky, very criticized in the Trumpist camp last time for having carried its usual military inspiration rather than a costume.

Each dress detail, intonation, gesture will have its importance, especially since Donald Trump seems to approach the meeting in a rather grieving mood, to read his last messages on Truth Social.

Always anxious to be in a position of strength, he attacked the American press violently, part of which accuses him of having folded in Alaska in front of his Russian counterpart.

Donald Trump did not win as he hoped for a cease-fire during his meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, and the Russian offensive continued on Monday.

Deadly strikes

Moscow pulled some 140 drones and four ballistic missiles on Sunday to Monday, announced the Ukrainian air force.

A Russian drone shot left seven dead and injured in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, according to local authorities.

Two people were killed in Ukrainian strikes in the Kherson and Donetsk regions, of which important parties are under the control of the Russian troops, according to the occupation authorities.

The meeting in Washington should make it possible to approach possible territorial concessions and security guarantees, to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

“Ray all my life”

In addition to Crimea’s question, an official in the event of telephone exchanges on Saturday between the American president and European leaders told AFP that Donald Trump supported a proposal from Moscow that Kyiv would give up the regions of Donetsk and Louhansk (east), and the front would be frozen in those of Kherson and Zaporijia (South).

American emissary Steve Witkoff assured that Moscow had made “certain territorial concessions”.

“Do I just have to draw a line on my whole life there?” How can you abandon your homeland? “, Lioudmyla Bondareva, from the city of Bakhmout, is lamented, opposed to the sale of his region today shaved and occupied by Moscow troops.

Coming back from Alaska, Donald Trump spoke of the track of a collective security clause inspired by article 5 of NATO, outside the framework of the Atlantic Alliance, considered by Moscow as an existential threat.

According to Emmanuel Macron, Europeans will ask the American president “to what extent” he will join security guarantees.

If “everything works well” on Monday, the republican billionaire has suggested a tripartite summit with MM. Putin and Zelensky.