. President Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, will travel to Washington this Monday to meet with US President Donald Trump ,. But he won’t do it alone. The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, the German Foreign Minister, Friedrich Merz, the presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, of Finland, Alexander Stubb, as well as the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, the British Prime Minister, Keir Stamer, and the secretary general of the NATO, Mark Rutte, Mark Rutte, Mark Rutte, have reported their Cabinets throughout this Sunday.
Trump said last Friday, after finishing his encounter with Putin in Alaska, that he had been “productive” and that the ball was now on the Ukrainian side. “Now it is up to President Zelenski to achieve it [un acuerdo de paz]. I would also say that European countries have to get a bit involved, ”he said. In the latter, of course, they have paid attention to him. If he wants to see all those who go to Washington together, he will have to receive them in some dependence on the west wing larger than the oval office. What is not clear is if they are going to involve exactly as he expected.
Because Trump in Alaska assumed at least part of the Russian agenda on the exit to the Ukraine War. If before the meeting with Putin, the Republican spoke of a high immediate fire or that there would be “serious consequences” for Russia, then it happened to say that it was much better to negotiate a definitive peace. Thus assumed the cadence that Moscow has always defended: the war will stop when “the deep roots” of the conflict are resolved.
Von der Leyen, always pending not to contradict the US leader, he said this Sunday that the important thing is not the words: “What matters is the effect and the effect must be the killings. The most important thing, rather than if we call the fire or peace agreement high, is to stop the killings. In addition, it is important to have a trilateral meeting as soon as possible.” He has declared in reference to the Tres Bandas Summit (United States, Russia, Ukraine) that Trump has raised and will talk to Zelenski on Monday.
Before moving to Washington, and participate together in the meeting of the leaders of the countries that make up the coalition of volunteers, willing to guarantee kyiv’s safety and sovereignty if a fire or a peace agreement arrived. This element is key to Europeans who do not want Russia to stop the invasion is only to replenish strength before continuing. And there, President von der Leyen has thanked Trump for “his willingness to contribute to [algo] Like article 5 [del Tratado de la OTAN]”As security guarantees for Ukraine.
This last sentence of the German, who had with European leaders after seeing Putin in Alaska, is an explicit reference to the article of the founding document of the Atlantic Alliance that says that an attack against one of its members is considered an attack against all and, therefore, the mutual defense implies.
This does not imply that Ukraine will be in NATO, but it is studied to give it a security guarantees similar to those of alliance members. The idea has launched it several times the Italian Meloni, who already congratulated himself that Trump had collected the glove.
Von der Leyen’s words have been ratified by the United States envoy for Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, who in an interview on the CNN television network has spoken of “robust security guarantees.” “We have an agreement for which the United States and other European countries can offer something similar to article 5 [de la OTAN] To cover security guarantees [de Ucrania]”.
Assignment of territory
Less clear is if the two sides of the Atlantic will have a close vision of a possible assignment of territories by the invaded country. Von der Leyen has stressed that “international borders cannot be changed through the use of force. This kind of decision has to be made by Ukraine, and only Ukraine, but never by force.” And kyiv says that it is legally impossible. “The Constitution of Ukraine declares both the transfer of territories and their exchange,” recalled President Zelenski in Brussels after listening to Von der Leyen.
“If a fire, the EU and the US are not high, the US and the US must increase the pressure on Russia,” said the president of the European Council, António Costa on Sunday. “The sovereign right of Ukraine must be respected,” he continued, “to determine his conditions for peace.”
These arguments are not new. They have been heard since the war began, but they sound more strongly in recent weeks, when the option to open a negotiation takes body. In Washington, Zelenski and the other leaders who travel with him can tell Trump what they think of the offer that Putin made to stop the invasion: that Ukraine gives him the entire region of Donbás (the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk), in eastern Ukraine, in exchange for freezing the line of the front. The Republican already told them this on Saturday and several of them took the conclusion that he was receptive to the idea.
Both the meeting this Sunday and the trip to Washington of several heavy pesos of the old continent is a clear gesture of support to Ukraine that goes beyond the traditional communications and the statements. They seek to demonstrate that they are fully involved in the end of the Russian invasion does not become a cooked issue between two (United States and Russia) and a third that has no choice but to accept what they offer. Also because almost all European countries – especially those closest to the border with Russia – understand that Moscow’s aggression initiated in February 2022 has removed the foundations of the continent’s own security.
To the appointment of this Sunday in Brussels he could not join as planned by the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, who traveled to León to visit the areas punished by the fires that ravage Spain. The meeting followed by videoconferencing the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares.
The Head of the Spanish Government has maintained an active role in supporting Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian large -scale invasion three and a half years ago. Sánchez was one of the leaders who wrapped Zelenski last February in kyiv in the events for the third anniversary of the offensive and also in. The Spanish president was not, however, present in the conversations prior to the Alaska Summit that had European leaders and Trump, with which Sanchez does not maintain good relations.
Nor have representatives from other countries participated that have shown their proximity to Ukraine since the invasion delivering military material, such as the Netherlands and Denmark (country with which the US president has opened a contentious on account of Greenland). Those who have been in meetings have been the leaders of the largest countries in Europe and with more weight in the international arena (the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany) and those closest to the border with Russia (Finland and Poland).
