European leaders said on Wednesday, 13, having prepared a strategy with Donald Trump for his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, 15, in Alaska, to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine. They insisted with the US President not to negotiate assignment of territories without Ukrainian endorsement. According to them, any peace plan should start with a ceasefire and negotiation needs to include Ukraine, absent at the meeting.
Yesterday’s discussions were a last -minute effort from European leaders to strengthen Trump ties before meeting with Putin. The VideoChamada was organized by German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and included Volodmir Zelenski and several other leaders, including the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Zelenski traveled to Berlin for the meeting.
Trump left the leaders in Europe worried about announcing the meeting with Putin last week. At various times, in recent weeks, his allies have believed that they were convincing the American to adopt a common strategy until he announced the summit with Putin in a hurry.
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After talking to the Europeans, Trump seemed pleased. “We had a very good conversation,” he told reporters after an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington. “I would give grade 10. It was very friendly.”
‘CONSEQUENCES’
The American promised to talk to Zelenski again and European leaders after the Alaska meeting. According to him, if it’s a good conversation, he wants to meet with Zelenski soon after. At the same event, Trump said Russia will “face consequences” if Putin does not agree to interrupt the war. He didn’t say what these consequences will be, just called them “very severe.”
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Under the presidency of Trump, many of the sanctions imposed by the US against Russia since the beginning of the war have lost strength. Trump told a reporter that he will probably not be able to stop Putin from attacking civilians in Ukraine because he has had this conversation with him before and the deaths continue.
In Berlin, Merz and Zelenski said that Trump agreed with some principles for Putin negotiations that include “keeping Ukraine on the table” and refusing to discuss peace terms, such as territories, before a ceasefire is established.
They said Ukraine would be willing to address changes in the territory -including the assignment of part of it -but would not discuss the legal recognition of the Russian occupation of areas of the country.
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Take
Principles also include insisting on safety guarantees for Ukraine after war, with the maintenance of its right to join NATO in the future and a commitment to increase economic pressure on Russia if negotiations do not agree. Trump said he supported Ukraine’s initiative for security guarantees and any land exchange would be a decision by Kiev, not his, according to an authority that witnessed the conversation.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested he could negotiate Ukrainian land exchange with Putin. Zelenski said yesterday he warned Trump that Putin was bluffing about his intentions. “I said Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants to completely occupy us,” said Zelenski. (With international agencies)
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The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
