Trump-Zelensky Meet Tomorrow, Europe Plans A Backup To Help Ukraine
The Zelensky-Trump meeting follows the US President's Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was billed as historic by both leaders but failed to come up with any immediate solution to the war. In contrast, this would be Zelensky's first visit to the US since February, when the two leaders had an ugly showdown, with Trump accusing him of being "disrespectful".
To save Zelensky from being ambushed by Trump like last time, European leaders are reportedly planning to send a representative to accompany the Ukrainian leader. Finnish President Alexander Stubb or NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte could accompany him, reported Politico.
Both Stubb and Rutte maintain a rapport with Trump and act as diplomatic buffers. The idea behind sending one of them, the report said, is to prevent any showdown between Trump and Zelensky and ensure Europe is not left out in their further discussions on Ukraine.
European leaders are on edge after Trump's warm reception for Putin in Alaska and are now worried that Zelensky might face a tougher, colder welcome at the White House. Besides, memories of their tense March encounter still linger, and European leaders fear Trump may once again ambush Zelensky with demands for territorial concessions.
In Monday's meeting, both Europe and Ukraine would try to ensure that Trump does not agree to Putin's demands, including the accession of any Ukrainian territory.
According to a source who spoke to AFP, Trump already backs a Russian proposal for Moscow to seize control of two Ukrainian regions, besides freezing the front line in two other places where Moscow holds only partial control. Reports suggest Trump has informed Zelensky of Russia's proposal to freeze most of the frontlines if he ceded all of Donetsk, but the Ukrainian leader rejected the demand.
Following his "very productive" meeting with Putin last Friday, Trump has said that the onus now lies on Zelensky to secure a peace deal. Trump has also reportedly sought a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelensky, but Moscow hasn't publicly committed to any such summit yet.
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Hindustan Times
15 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Putin Returns to Moscow With Air of Triumph After Summit
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn't have scripted his first visit to the U.S. since 2015 much better. The Russian leader strutted along a red carpet at a U.S. air base and posed smiling with President Trump, who had weeks earlier been expressing mounting frustration with him and threatening to hit Russia and its trading partners with sanctions. He met with Trump under a sign that read 'pursuing peace.' When they emerged 3½ hours later, the leaders said they hadn't reached a deal. Instead, Putin used the stage to press his demands on Ukraine. Neither Trump nor Putin, who is facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes, took questions from the U.S. press. Putin, by clinching a long-awaited summit with Trump, scored a win. The Kremlin leader, has staked his legacy on dismantling the post-Cold War world order and resurrecting Russia's great-power status to put it on par with the U.S. 'Putin achieved exactly what he wanted: He simultaneously preserved his relationship with Trump, avoided additional sanctions, and received the blessing to continue his war,' said Andrey Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst and a columnist at New Times, an independent Russian-language magazine. The summit gave Putin a platform to turn longstanding narratives about the Ukraine war on their head, emphasizing that the U.S. and Russia are neighbors separated at their closest point by just over 2 miles of water. Meanwhile, he has tried to paint Europe and Ukraine as the two biggest obstacles to peace, while stepping up recent attacks on Ukrainian cities. Putin and Trump emerged from talks Friday without having a deal. Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in the days before the summit to understand better their red lines in negotiations with Russia. But the images of the two leaders in Alaska were certainly unsettling on the continent. Trump rolled out a red carpet for Putin on the taxiway of the U.S. air base, applauding as the Kremlin leader approached. After a firm handshake, Trump invited him to ride in his armored limousine to the meeting. 'Putin loves trolling and rubbing Europeans' noses in the fact that there is a strong relationship with Trump,' said Andrew Weiss, who worked on Russian affairs in George H.W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's administrations. Hours after arriving back in Moscow, Putin gathered his top officials inside the Kremlin to tell them the summit had been a resounding success. 'We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time,' he said to an array of officials, including the defense minister, the chief of staff and intelligence chiefs. 'I repeat once again: We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail once again explain our position.' To be sure, Trump said in the days before the summit that he didn't expect any major breakthroughs and said he hoped he could clinch a cease-fire and lay the foundation for a lasting peace process. But in the hours after the summit, previous calls for an immediate cease-fire evaporated. Meanwhile, Trump's own language mirrored that of the Russian side, calling in a post on Truth Social for an overarching peace agreement as opposed to a halt to fighting first. That effectively gives Putin the green light to continue the fighting to capture more land in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are making gains. 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'Both sides want normalization, which has a very strong business aspect that could unlock some money flows for both countries,' said Elina Ribakova, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Putin seemed to signal as much on Friday when he signed a decree that could offer Exxon Mobil re-entry into the Russian market through a stake in the potentially lucrative Sakhalin-1 oil field, which it pulled out of after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Whether the takeaways from the summit can translate into a sustainable peace process is hard to determine. In a call from Air Force One on his way home from the summit, Trump relayed to the Europeans the outcome of the meeting and that Putin wanted to keep fighting, according to European officials. Trump plans to meet Monday with Zelensky, who wasn't invited to Friday's summit. Analysts said expectations are low that a road to peace can be found in a war that Russia is slowly winning. 'The bubble of inflated expectations has burst, and the process itself has turned into 'Waiting for Godot,'' said Kolesnikov, referring to a play about endless waiting. Write to Thomas Grove at
NDTV
26 minutes ago
- NDTV
US Suspends Visas For Gazans Seeking Medical Aid After Far-Right Campaign
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United News of India
43 minutes ago
- United News of India
Nordic-Baltic Eight nations say no decision can be made for Ukraine and Europe without their involvement
Oslo, Aug 16 (UNI) The Baltic-Nordic belt of Europe or the 'Nordic-Baltic Eight' reaffirmed their full support for Ukraine post the US-Russia summit in Alaska, and in a joint statement said 'no decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine, and no decisions on Europe without Europe". The NB-8 – comprising Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – though welcoming of President Donald Trump's attempts at discussing peace with President Vladmir Putin, were skeptical over the Russian leader's comments. 'Experience has shown that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin cannot be trusted,' the statement read, adding 'Ultimately it is Russia's responsibility to end its blatant violations of international law. Russia's aggression and imperialist ambitions are the root causes of this war.' The eight countries also welcomed US' security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe, saying that 'no limitations should be placed on Ukraine's armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries' and that 'Russia has no veto over Ukraine's pathway to the EU and NATO.' They reiterated their support for Kyiv and pledged to continue Europe's militarisation to stave off any potential Russian military venture, warning they will keep strengthening sanctions and economic measures 'as long as Russia continues its killing.'
