WITH Alaska In the rear -view mirror, Donald Trump walks into a completely different situation while he returns to the White House this week.
His top with Vladimir Putin is over, although the fall -out continues. On Friday, the US literally rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader and accused war criminal when he arrived in Anchorage for peace talks in Ukraine – although no Ukrainians were invited to the meeting.
Trump flew back to Washington after he had publicly stopped his own call for a cease -the fires and reportedly approved a Russian demand for Ukraine to hand over the whole of the Donbas region, including territory that is currently controlled by Ukrainian troops.
After he has completed one of his characteristic Chummy interviews with Putin, Trump now stands for the so-called “Coalition of the Willing”: a group of European leaders united behind the defense of Ukraine and unacceptable that no agreement can be concluded without Kiev’s support.
The guests of the president could hit a completely different tone, given how Trump’s last face-to-face encounter with VolodyMyr Zensky in the Oval Office was postponed in an almost known competition.
But there are indications that Zelensky’s allies want to avoid that spectacle and instead have to lean on figures with whom Trump enjoys warmer relationships while they want to perform claims control: including, mainly, Trump decreases from an agreement that would not give up the Ukrainian territory by Russian fight forces.
And European leaders also state that Ukrainian officials, including Zensky, are directly involved in peace talks with Russia – something that it was that American officials had successfully pushed Putin in May, only for Russia to postpone and Te Demur.
The enormous size of the delegation on the way to Washington on Monday seems to suggest that a show of violence is the goal of Zensky. In addition to the Ukrainian leader, Trump will be at Trump at the White House with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Ursula Von der Leyen from Navo together with Navo.
Although large, the choice of members was not random. Each member of De Posse has, in their own handling of Trump, cultivated friendly relationships with the American president – except Zonensky, who clashed with Trump when he visited in February.
Public were those who went to the White House positive about the consequences of the top of Trump. “The efforts of President Trump have brought us closer than ever to end the illegal war of Russia in Ukraine,” said Starmer.
The British Prime Minister and his counterparts could rely on Trump’s tendency to change his position quickly because he and other European leaders are launching a charm offensive.
Although none of the European counterparts of Trump will say it, critics of the Republican President in the US mentioned the top of Friday a “setback” for Ukrainians and Europe in general.
“Vladimir Putin received the red carpet treatment on American soil. But we have no cease -the fire, no threatening meeting between Putin and Zensky,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, Sunday on ABCs This week. He added that Trump was “flattered” by the Russian president.
American officials will probably enter the Monday meeting to portray news about Putin’s openness for a security agreement supported by the US as a victory for the Ukrainian side. But there is a feeling that there is still a large wave between what the government of Putin and the Ukraine is willing to accept, and that little progress was made to largely bridge it as a result of the hesitation of Trump to use any form of lever against Putin.
Even that development can be confronted with skepticism. It is no secret for European leaders who support republicans and even progressives for direct American military intervention in Ukraine is remarkably low. On Saturday, Zensky herself responded to the news and wrote in a message to Twitter/X: “Security must be reliable and guaranteed in the long term, with the involvement of both Europe and the US”
The recording of the word “reliable” suggests that Zensky accepts nothing less than a specific regional security agreement in exchange for dropping the ambitions of Ukraine to become a member of NATO alliance, which would grant Article 5 protection. Pursuant to Article 5 of the NATO-Charter, Member States must become the Member State that is being attacked separately to the help of a member of the member. The provision was only activated once, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“All issues that are important for Ukraine must be discussed with the participation of Ukraine, and no problem, in particular territorial, can be decided without Ukraine,” Zensky added.
Some had been optimistic that the use of leverage was imminent after the statements of Trump prior to the top indicated that he no longer believed that Putin’s claims to put an end to the conflict. In reports on social media and public statements, the US president seemed closer to raising sanctions against the Russian government.
European leaders hoped that they managed to drive that point home, in conversations with Trump prior to the Anchorage Summit, but that progress seems to have evaporated. It can fall on starmer and others like Stubb, known as a “Trump Whisperer”, to re -conquer the president that Putin’s requirement for a full seizure of the Donbas region is a poison pill that is aimed at Ukraine away from the table.
On Sunday, State Secretary Marco Rubio denied that Trump’s position about whether Putin was serious, “had changed” at all, so that the delegation might have given a reason to hope that the US president could be made to understand that Ukraine would not consider further territorial benefits to Russia.
“I don’t think his thoughts has changed completely. In the end, if this whole effort does not work, then there will be extra consequences for Russia. But we try to avoid that by reaching a peace agreement,” said Rubio.
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