The leaders of Germany, France, Poland and the United Kingdom have traveled this Saturday together to kyiv in an unprecedented gesture in the more than three years that the war lasts. The four allied European powers of Ukraine have wanted to stage the sissured support to the country invaded by Russia, especially before the ambivalent strategy in the conflict of Donald Trump. The president of the United States has shown that sometimes it is closer to the interests of Moscow than to Europeans. President Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the prime ministers of Poland and the United Kingdom, Donald Tusk and Keir Starmer, have spoken with Trump by phone from kyiv. In this conversation they have proposed to the US president to jointly demand Vladimir Putin. Otherwise, Europe and the US will redouble the economic pressure on Russia “with mass sanctions”, according to Macron’s words. Starmer added that Russian refusal will also imply “increasing military support for Ukraine.”
Merz, Macron, Tusk and Starmer have arrived early in the morning by train from Rzesów, a Polish city next to the Ukraine border and where the airport that NATO has used during the war for the transport of military assistance to the attacked country is located. The images of the four leaders disseminated by their teams wanted to convey a camaraderie that also reflected in the visits to several emblematic places in the capital of Ukraine. “For the first time in a long time we have had the feeling that we are talking about one voice,” Tusk celebrated.
The appointment has been organized as a meeting of the call and French, in which Spain also participates, to reinforce the defense of Ukraine. The rest of the thirty members of the coalition intervened at the summit per videoconference. The idea is that the high temporary fire serves as a negotiation period for peace, as Zelenski has underlined before the media. Merz has revealed that they have spoken twice with Trump and that he has let them know that “he shares this initiative and supports it.” Starmer has repeated that this strategy develops “together with the US.”
“After talking with President Trump, we agreed to have a common vision for the next steps,” said Zelenski. These words have a special importance because Washington had left European powers outside the discussions with Moscow. “All in common we can agree on the pillars of a future peace,” added the Ukrainian president.
The first representative of the Trump team to comment on the Summit’s proposal has been the special envoy of the White House for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg. “A full fire, by land, sea, air and on the infrastructure, the process will begin to end the greatest and long war in Europe since World War II,” Kellogg written on the social network X, “as President Trump has reiterated, we must already stop the killing.”
The war has left at least more than 100,000 Russian soldiers and about 70,000 dead Ukrainians, according to data from independent analysis groups that check public notifications of deaths. The real figures are much higher, especially on the Russian side. In Ukraine, in addition, about 13,000 civilians have lost their lives, according to the United Nations. In these more than three years of invasion, Kremlin has taken control of the province of Lugansk, from most of Donetsk province, and from the provinces of Jersón and Zaporiyia. Russia illegally annexed in 2014 the Crimean Peninsula.
The meeting of these heads of European state and government with Zelenski has also aimed to send a sign of force to counteract the Soviet victory in World War II. Putin received on Friday the support in Moscow from 35 countries, especially from the Chinese Xi Jinping, the Brazilian Lula da Silva and the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico.
The moment is especially delicate for the interests of the country invaded by the repeated samples Trump had given to make Putin concessions in a hypothetical peace agreement. Zelenski is focusing his strategy on demonstrating to the Republican that Kremlin has no intention of negotiating the end of the war. “We all know the very thin line through which we are moving forward to keep the US in the resolution of the conflict,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in an intervention by videoconference at the kyiv summit.
Trump loses patience
William Taylor, former US former ambassador in Ukraine, said Thursday during the kyiv Security Forum that “there may be a change in Washington” in favor of Ukraine positions. Taylor highlighted the best relations between Trump and Zelenski, especially last April, and with the signing of the agreement for which the US will exploit the mineral resources of Ukraine together with kyiv. Trump indicated precisely that the ratification of the mineral agreement on Thursday at the Ukrainian Parliament was the reason to carry out the telephone interview with Zelenski.
Taylor added in his optimism that Trump’s probable sanctions on Russia and the probable authorization of a first military assistance package for Ukraine-components for their F-16 fighters-also indicate that Washington may be distancing Moscow. Despite this, the US President positively valued the holidays on May 9. But the high fire has proven to be an entelechy, because the fighting on the front have continued and the Russian air bombs have continued to punish the provinces where the fighting occurs, as in Sumi. Yes, long -range Russian attacks have been suspended, with missiles or pump drones against cities away from the front.
This Saturday in an interview in the newspaper Bild. The Wall Street Journal On Friday, Trump had admitted in a recent meeting with entrepreneurs that Putin’s attitude was the main stumbling block to carry out the peace process. Zelenski, Macron and Merz had maintained in recent days telephone conversations with Trump in which they have insisted the US president in which the nuts to Putin squeeze if he confirms that he has no will to assume a high total fire.
European troops
In the interventions of European leaders before the media, the debate on how compliance with the truce could be monitored. Zelenski has suggested that the United States must have the initiative in this control. President Ukraine has also indicated that it is early to raise demilitarized areas along the front, although he is contrary to this idea because Russia has demonstrated in the past that it does not fulfill its word. He put this idea on the Kellogg table this week in an interview in Fox News.
Macron and Starmer have also emphasized the need to intensify the debate among the members of the coalition of volunteers on the format of the European military forces that could be deployed in Ukraine to guarantee the cessation of hostilities. In this regard. The British prime minister has taken for granted that without the presence of European troops, Russia will insure a hypothetical agreement.
