'Russia will not give Ukraine security guarantee'
Volodymyr Zelensky (left) will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, accompanied by Ursula von der Leyen (right) and other European leaders. Photo: Reuters
Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees, after US and EU officials promoted the possibility.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff earlier said US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine during a meeting in Alaska on Friday.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday hailed the proposal as an offer of NATO-style security guarantees from the United States.
"We welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to (NATO) Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share," von der Leyen said.
Zelensky also welcomed the idea of US security guarantees -- but was less positive about Russia's intentions.
"What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin's thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees," he told a press conference in Brussels alongside von der Leyen.
"Security means a strong army, which only Ukraine can provide. I believe that only Europe can finance this army."
Von der Leyen and Zelensky also shared their thoughts on a possible meeting between Trump, Putin and the Ukrainian leader.
"So far, Russia gives no sign that the trilateral will happen and if Russia refuses, then new sanctions must follow," Zelensky said.
Von der Leyen had said she wanted to see the three-way meeting happen "as soon as possible".
Zelensky will meet Trump in Washington on Monday, accompanied by von der Leyen and other European leaders. (AFP)
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The Alaska summit was a great success for Vladimir Putin and for Donald Trump's love of theater, but a potential disaster for Ukraine and Europe. The most obvious feature was that Russia made no commitment to a ceasefire. But the most important was that America put no pressure at all on Russia to end the war, despite Trump having promised Europe that he would do so. It is true that few details have been revealed about what was discussed, still less agreed, between the Russian dictator and the American president, although some have leaked, confirming Europeans' worst fears about Putin's demands and about Trump's unwillingness to challenge him. More will doubtless emerge when Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelenskyy flies to Washington on Monday to meet Trump, and from conversations both men have with European leaders. Yet meanwhile we should reflect carefully and soberly on two revealing and menacing vignettes from the summit. 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What these vignettes also reveal is that Putin and Trump share a view of the world as consisting of a lot of weak countries but of three superpowers, to which special rules apply. It is the world as described more than two millennia ago by the Greek historian Thucydides, in which 'the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.' While such realpolitik never completely went away, the whole point of the United Nations Charter of 1945, the body of international law which followed and the collective efforts of the West was to constrain the use of military power and to protect smaller countries against bigger ones. Trump has now confirmed, for anyone who had yet to realize it, that he is a great-power guy, and one who thinks that great powers should treat each other with a special respect. For him, the West is dead. Ukraine, along with others on Europe's frontline such as Poland, the Baltic States and Finland, was already well aware of Russia's imperial ambitions and of Trump's contemptuous view of smaller countries. However, for the two other groups that are still capable of exerting pressure on Trump and on the Ukraine war, the Alaska summit could prove to be a valuable wake-up call. Those two groups are Trump's own Republican supporters in the US Congress and the leaders of Europe's most powerful countries: Germany, France, Italy and Britain. Out of a mixture of loyalty and fear, the Republicans in Congress who care about Ukraine have up until now given Trump the benefit of the doubt. In the weeks before the summit, they chose to believe him when he threatened Russia with 'severe consequences' if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. Now, unless information quickly emerges showing that Trump has in fact made new and credible threats privately to Putin, they are going to have to choose whether to speak out or to stay silent. The initial reaction from Republicans in Washington to the news from Alaska was quite negative. Their dismal record during Trump's so-far seven months in office nonetheless suggests they will soon quieten down. But with Trump's own poll ratings looking weak and next year's mid-term congressional elections on the horizon, there is a small chance that some might feel brave enough to stand up for Ukraine and to lobby him hard in the only place he really cares about, the United States itself. That said, the greater hope lies, as always, in Europe. For months now the main European strategy has been to try to persuade Trump to put pressure on Putin, while militaries make plans for how to give Ukraine security guarantees to reinforce a ceasefire once one has been agreed. They adopted this strategy because of their own military weakness, and paid a big price for it by meekly accepting the tariffs Trump imposed on the European Union and the United Kingdom rather than seeking to fight back by threatening trade retaliation. They will now have to decide whether this strategy has definitively failed. The cowardly but politically tempting option will be to say that the strategy needs to be given more time. Yet Trump himself, in his Hannity interview and in other remarks, has essentially indicated that this strategy has failed. He has continued to hint that he thinks Ukraine will have to cede more territory to Russia, which both Ukraine and the European leaders have rightly said is a non-starter. It really is time for the Europeans to take over the leading role in strengthening Ukraine's bargaining position and in forcing Russia to bring this war to an end. Doing so will be hard, for the Europeans' weakness is sadly genuine. 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