Will Trump get played by Putin? Europe is worried

The Hill

10 hours ago

President Trump's sharp criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday is sending chills across Europe, where leaders are working to guard against the worst-case scenario: Trump aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin to force a bad deal on Kyiv.
Trump blew past a deadline last week to impose punishing sanctions on Russia and its primary trading partners in exchange for the face-to-face meeting with Putin, set for Friday in Alaska.
And while the president has expressed increased frustration with Putin and Russia's attacks on Ukraine, he this week reverted to criticisms that Zelelsky is to blame for stating the war.
'[Trump] is very unpredictable,' Lesia Zaburanna, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament in Zelensky's Servant of the People party and the deputy chair of the budget committee, said in a call with The Hill.
'We highly appreciate all American support, and we highly appreciate all military, financial support. But if we talk about the situation with Trump's negotiation, we are not sure what we will have on Friday.'
The worst case scenario, Zaburanna said, would be if Trump reached an agreement with Putin on territorial concessions without Ukraine, and a fatal blow for Kyiv would be if Trump withdrew U.S. support, particularly intelligence sharing on the battlefield and military support.
Zaburanna described living in Kyiv now as similar to the first days of the full-scale invasion – nightly air raid alarms, massive explosions, menacing drones attacks, destruction of civilian buildings and mounting casualties.
Trump has provided few details on his goals for the meeting, telling reporters on Monday he's using the summit as an opportunity to 'feel out' Putin, who has so far rebuffed all his calls for a ceasefire and increased the pace of attacks on Ukraine.
But Zelensky told reporters this week that Ukraine could be asked to withdraw from the Donbas region to attain a ceasefire. Zelensky said he'd received these indications from Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy to the region.
'Witkoff said that there should be territorial concessions from both sides – that's how it sounded,' Zelenskyy told NewsNation's Robert Sherman and other reporters in Ukraine. 'And that, most likely, Putin wants us to withdraw from Donbas. In other words, it didn't sound like it was America wanting us to withdraw. After we held two more NSA meetings, it became clear what Putin wants. This is not a proposal from Trump or Witkoff.'
'During the call, I said that I am not ready to discuss Ukraine's territories, as this is solely a matter of our Constitution,' Zelenskyy added.
While Trump has called Putin's ongoing attacks on Ukraine 'cold,' he also offered criticism this week of Zelensky.
'I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, 'I have to get constitutional approval,' he has approval to do a war and kill everybody but he needs approval for land swapping?' Trump told reporters on Monday.
Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, described it as 'quite crazy' that Trump was putting pressure on Zelensky instead of calling out Putin for launching the war.
'We don't have any high hopes on what's going to happen in Alaska,' he said in a phone call with The Hill.
Mihkelson, along with 26 chairs of European foreign affairs committees, published a letter Tuesday saying that any outcome of the Alaska talks 'must firmly uphold Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitution and the principles of the United Nations Charter.'
The letter matched a joint statement from European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday and a Saturday statement from the leaders of France, Italy, Poland, Finland, the United Kingdom and European Union.
Mihkelson said the best-case scenario would be for the Alaska summit to be cancelled. He warned of repeating the mistakes of the 1938 Munich Conference – when European leaders agreed to allow Hitler to annex territory in then-Czechoslovakia, and that served as a prelude to the Nazi invasion of Europe.
'Can Alaska become a second Munich, or not?… We should not repeat mistakes from the past,' Mihkelson said. 'And obviously nothing can be decided about Ukraine without Ukraine, and nothing can be decided about Europe, without Europe.'
Trump said he will call Zelensky and European leaders almost immediately after meeting with Putin, saying that he gets along great with European leaders and NATO members. The White House said Tuesday that Trump's meeting with Putin is exclusively focused on ending the war in Ukraine, and not about bilateral issues, or opportunities between Moscow and Washington.
Zelensky warned that Putin is preparing the ground for more war, and is re-deploying troops and forces in what Ukraine assesses is a renewed military offensive.
'If someone is preparing for peace, this is not what he does. We continue to keep our partners informed about the real situation on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in Russia's planning of further actions,' Zelensky said in his nightly address to the country.
Zelensky told NewsNation on Tuesday that Ukraine is supportive of a trilateral track of negotiations, to get a ceasefire, an 'all-for-all exchange' [prisoners of war] and the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
'Some period of time is set for the ceasefire – any period. Let America choose, let the Russians choose. This is to prepare a plan, so that we can find some compromises for ending the war,' Zelensky said.
He also warned that compromises leading to peace cannot be found if Russia issues ultimatums.
'Putin always speaks in ultimatums. But I believe he does not have enough leverage against Trump to speak to him in ultimatums,' Zelensky said.
Russian officials signal the Kremlin's demands will include the same it had when it launched its war: demanding Ukraine's demilitarization, Ukraine's commitment to neutrality and a commitment to never joining NATO, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
It also believes Putin will angle for Ukrainian elections that could give Russia influence over their results.
David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute and an expert on Russia and Ukraine, said there are still ways for Trump to gain the upper hand in Alaska.
'We can ramp up the sanctions, we can invite Zelenskyy to the meeting, I mean, it's Tuesday now, there's time for Zelensky to travel… I think there are a number of things that the president can do to turn this opportunity into a meeting where he makes clear that Russia is the guilty party here… and any attempts to blame Zelensky, I think, are misguided,' he said.
There will be scrutiny on the choreography surrounding Trump and Putin's greeting.
In July 2022, President Biden fist-bumped Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to avoid a handshake after calling him a killer. In 2009, former President Clinton appeared straight-faced, no smile, alongside then-North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il.
'I hope he has the discipline,' Kramer said of Trump.
'I hope he goes into this meeting with the awareness that Putin has the blood of thousands of Ukrainians on his hands, but thousands and thousands of Ukrainians would still be alive if Putin did not decide on February 24, 2022 to launch this unjustified, unprovoked, full scale invasion that has included war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.'