Keystone-SDA
The European Union urgently brings together its leaders of diplomacy on Monday, seeking to weigh on the talks scheduled this week between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine. These discussions make him fear an agreement at the expense of kyiv.
(Keystone-ATS) Europeans are increasing contacts and strives to make a common front behind Ukraine since the announcement on Friday in Alaska of the summit bringing together the American and Russian presidents. There must be a question, according to Donald Trump, of a possible agreement providing for “exchanges of territories” to put an end to the conflict which made tens, even hundreds of thousands of deaths for more than three years in the two countries.
As it stands, the presence of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is not planned, even if it remains “possible” according to the United States ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker.
“President Trump is right to say that Russia must end his war against Ukraine. The United States has the power to compel Russia to seriously negotiate, “insisted in a statement the head of diplomacy in the European Union, Kaja Kallas.
But, she insisted, “any agreement between the United States and Russia must include Ukraine and the EU because it is a question of security for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe”.
She announced an “extraordinary meeting” on Monday in videoconference of foreign ministers in EU countries, in the presence of their Ukrainian counterpart Andriï Sybigua, “in order to discuss the next steps”.
Ultimatum
This exchange will be added to a series of contacts during the weekend, with a meeting on Saturday in the United Kingdom between European and American national security advisers in the presence of the US vice-president JD Vance and many telephone conversations.
The Ukrainian Head of State has met himself in the past three days with 13 European leaders, as well as with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
And then, kyiv “works of course with the United States. It is not happening one day without us communicating on the means to achieve real peace. We understand that Russia intends to deceive America, ”warned Mr. Zelensky in his evening message.
Vladimir Putin for his part conversed with nine heads of state or government in three days including Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Inacio Lula da Silva.
Donald Trump, who had promised to settle the Ukrainian conflict in 24 hours on his return to the White House, started a spectacular rapprochement with the Russian president. But he has shown growing frustration when Russia has intensified its Ukraine bombings in recent months.
The announcement of the Alaska summit intervened Friday, the same day of the expiration of an ultimatum launched at the Kremlin to put an end to the worst armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.
The fighting and bombing has since continued with six dead in Russian strikes on Sunday in Ukraine, where a Russian planing bomb also reached the highly frequented central bus station of Zaporijjia (east), making 20 injured.
On the Russian side, an attack on Ukrainian drones on “industrial companies” killed Arzamas, in the Nijni-Novgorod region, more than 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, according to regional authorities.
“Test Putin”
During the night of Saturday to Sunday the French, German, Italian, Polish, British and Finnish leaders, and the president of the European Commission urged the American president to increase the “pressure” on Russia.
They estimated that any negotiation should take place “in the context of a ceasefire or a reduction in hostilities” and informed that a diplomatic solution should include “solid and credible security guarantees” for Ukraine.
The Russian army currently controls approximately 20% of the Ukrainian territory.
Moscow claims that Ukraine gives him four partially occupied regions (Donetsk, Lougansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson), in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014, and that it renounces Western arms deliveries and any membership in NATO. Unacceptable requirements for kyiv.
Donald Trump “puts pressure on Putin, assured the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, on ABC television, believing that” next Friday will be important, because it will be a question of testing Putin and determining his commitment to end this terrible war “.
