European leaders to join Ukraine's Zelenskyy for White House meeting with Trump
The move in relation to the key White House meeting on Monday is an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the heated encounter Zelenskyy faced when he met Trump in February.
The European leaders' presence at Zelenskyy's side, demonstrating Europe's support for Ukraine, could potentially help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Zelenskyy risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia.
Von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive branch, posted on X that 'at the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow.'
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Japan Forward
an hour ago
- Japan Forward
Alaska Summit Leaves No Doubt Trump Was Played by Putin
このページを 日本語 で読む United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on August 15, but failed to lay out a path to a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. At a joint press conference following the meeting, Putin maintained his hardline stance. A ceasefire, he said, requires that "We didn't get there." It will soon be three and a half years since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Reaching a ceasefire agreement in a single meeting was too much to be expected, especially without participation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Even so, it is unfortunate that prospects for a stop to the fighting appear as distant as ever. What is concerning is that Trump's appeasement stance in regards to Putin has become conspicuous. In Ukraine, Russian forces continue indiscriminate attacks on civilians. However, at the joint news conference, Trump voiced no criticism of the Russian invasion. To the contrary, both leaders repeatedly described the meeting as "useful" and "productive." Despite that, they did not mention any specific points of agreement. Moreover, they sought to emphasize their close personal ties, which leaves those looking on with a strong sense of discomfort. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to US President Donald Trump upon arriving at Fort Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15. (©Reuters via Kyodo) It is also outrageous that the two men discussed joint development of the Arctic and bilateral business cooperation. In an interview with Fox News that same day after the meeting, Trump revealed that he and Putin had discussed a "territorial swap" between Russia and Ukraine. "It's up to President Zelenskyy to get it done," he said, urging him to "make a deal." Establishing a ceasefire line is one thing. But Ukraine should not be asked to make concessions on territorial issues, which are fundamental to national sovereignty. Trump also stated that he would not immediately consider raising punitive tariffs (secondary tariffs) on countries such as China and India that continue to purchase Russian crude oil. However, he added that he might have to think about that in two or three weeks. Trump has clearly backed down. After all, he previously threatened to impose secondary tariffs if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire agreement. Putin must be laughing out loud now that he has succeeded in buying time to continue his invasion. Speaking in English, Putin also proposed that the two leaders next meet in Moscow. That would rule out participation by President Zelenskyy. President Trump should not accept such a duplicitous invitation. Instead of trying to charm him, Trump should be increasing pressure on the invader. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (©Kyodo) Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbu このページを 日本語 で読む
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Can a peace agreement be reached in Ukraine without ceding territory to Russia?
When Donald Trump hosts Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday, the U.S. President is set to turn up the pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart to agree to a peace deal with Vladimir Putin after Mr. Trump backed down from pressing the Russian leader for a ceasefire. Mr. Zelensky, for his part, plans to bring a troop of fellow European leaders with him to the sit-down, hastily scheduled after Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin's Friday meeting in Alaska. They are expected to fight back against Russia's demand that Kyiv surrender swaths of territory to Moscow. Mr. Trump, who once promised to broker an end to Mr. Putin's invasion of Ukraine within a day of taking office, has signalled that he wants an agreement in short order. But whether a conclusion is possible in the face of Mr. Putin's conditions and Mr. Trump's frequently changing position on the war remains unclear. At stake is the outcome of Europe's deadliest fighting in 80 years. And at play is the once-unthinkable possibility that the U.S. might push to recognize Russian sovereignty over land that Moscow seized in an invasion. The U.S. President sought to project optimism Sunday. 'BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!' he posted on Truth Social. Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump's special envoy for peace missions, said the U.S. and European countries might offer Ukraine similar protection that NATO countries have under Article 5 of their collective defence pact as part of a peace agreement. Under such a scenario, the U.S. and other countries would promise to defend Ukraine if it were invaded again. 'The United States is potentially prepared to be able to give Article 5 security guarantees – but not from NATO – directly from the United States and other European countries,' Mr. Witkoff said on Fox News on Sunday. It remains to be seen whether Ukraine would trust such a guarantee. In 1994, the country gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., Britain and Russia, only for Russia to later invade and occupy swaths of its territory, starting with Crimea in 2014. Mr. Witkoff said he was optimistic the Monday meeting would lead to a later trilateral gathering between Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky. He indicated that territorial concessions were on the table. 'It is for the Ukrainians to decide how they might land swap, how they might make a deal with the Russians on different territories there.' Mr. Zelensky's squad at the meeting is expected to include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Analysis: Truth will likely be the last casualty of war in Ukraine Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Mr. Zelensky reiterated that 'the constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible' for him 'to give up territory or trade land.' And he poured cold water on Mr. Putin's reported demand that Kyiv cede land to Moscow that Russian troops don't even occupy, including the whole of Ukraine's Donbas industrial region. 'We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now. The contact line is the best line for talking.' Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took part in a virtual meeting with Mr. Zelensky and the European leaders on Sunday, warned in a statement that 'President Putin cannot be trusted' and any peace deal would therefore have to include 'robust and credible security guarantees' for Ukraine, along with a strong Ukrainian military. 'Current diplomatic engagement must be reinforced by continued military and economic pressure on Russia to end its aggression,' Mr. Carney said. Before his Friday meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to increase sanctions on Russia and said he was 'not going to be happy' if the Russian leader didn't agree to a ceasefire. After the tête-à-tête, however, Mr. Trump changed his mind. He expressed agreement with Mr. Putin, saying it was on Mr. Zelensky to 'make a deal' with Russia, without Russia having to pause fighting. In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Trump said 'it's really up to Zelensky to get it done' because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not.' The U.S. President said his conversation with Mr. Putin was 'very warm' and that Mr. Putin had backed Mr. Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said sanctions might still be on the table if there is no peace agreement. 'If this whole effort doesn't work out, then there is going to have to be additional consequences to Russia,' he said on ABC. He defended Mr. Trump's decision not to follow through on his previous sanction threats. 'The minute you levy additional sanctions, strong additional sanctions, the talking stops,' he said.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Truth will likely be the last casualty of war in Ukraine
Two men, a single maxim: It's the land, stupid. There, the similarities end. Donald Trump thinks of land in real estate terms. Vladimir Putin thinks of it in geopolitical terms. That's why, earlier this year, the U.S. President could conjure up a beachfront resort in Gaza, which he doesn't control. And that's why the Russian President is now demanding Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukrainian land he only partially controls. There aren't going to be Gaza Trump International resort beach bungalows any time soon, and probably never. But when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with Mr. Trump in Washington Monday, he likely will be pressed to relinquish his 'Never settle' territory pledge – a phrase, coincidentally, that is the motto of the Trump luxury properties. Mr. Zelensky will be joined by an extraordinary high-ranking delegation of European leaders, all deeply troubled about the direction the fast-moving developments are taking. Their swiftly organized visit is both a remarkable symbol of European unity and a clear rebuke to Mr. Trump, who earlier warned Mr. Putin of dire consequences if his assault against Ukraine isn't paused. This group – which includes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Union's executive arm – is perhaps the largest such impromptu gathering in Washington since world leaders rushed to the 1963 funeral of John F. Kennedy. Though mollified slightly by indications Ukraine will receive security assurances in an eventual peace settlement, they clearly are alarmed that Mr. Trump has swiftly, perhaps impulsively, backed away from putting pressure on Russia – in essence providing the country that began the conflict with a blank cheque while rendering a U.S. President already suspected of Russian sympathies vulnerable to critiques he is rewarding aggression. Putin agreed to let U.S., Europe offer Ukraine NATO-style security guarantees, Trump envoy says Now the pressure has moved from Russia to Ukraine, with Mr. Trump warning that 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not.' He told Mr. Zelensky that if Ukraine relinquished Donetsk, where Russia has had a strong position for more than a decade, Mr. Putin would freeze his troops in place. Mr. Zelensky rejected the notion, which would deliver to Russia a land mass more than twice the size of Nova Scotia. Already Mr. Putin, who appears to have profited the most from the summit, has registered a minor symbolic victory. 'They spent three years telling everyone Russia was isolated,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday, 'and today they saw the beautiful red carpet laid out for the Russian President in the U.S.' The Trump-Zelensky parley, like the one Mr. Trump held in Anchorage, Alaska, with Mr. Putin, is yet another example of the realpolitik in the line The Rolling Stones inserted 16 times into a 1969 hit song: 'You can't always get what you want.' Mr. Trump wants a swift resolution to the war. He may not get it. Mr. Putin wants a cessation of hostilities but only on his own terms and as part of a broader settlement. He's more likely to prevail. Mr. Zelensky wants a ceasefire before a peace settlement, which Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin now oppose, and he ultimately wants an end to the fighting but only if his country's dignity and sovereignty are preserved and the wartime casualties do not seem to have been in vain. That's the fulcrum of Monday's discussions in Washington. Already the terms of debate have shifted dramatically, just as the momentum in the war has bounced in the last several months between the two colliding armies, now exhausted but still in desperate mortal combat. Trump tells Zelensky that Putin demands more control of Ukraine, urges Kyiv to make a deal Mr. Trump has delivered several deadlines to Mr. Putin, all ignored, defied or forgotten. The U.S. President assured Mr. Macron that a ceasefire was the goal of Friday's conversations at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and then began his journey to the 49th state insisting he was working to win a ceasefire. By the time Mr. Trump was back in Washington, he was disavowing a ceasefire in favour of a broader settlement. ('The best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.') That was congruent with the view of Mr. Putin, who first wanted an unconditional military triumph and the annexation of Ukraine but apparently now will settle for the territorial gains he last week proscribed were the conditions for a 'promise' to end the war. One of the reasons the terms of diplomatic engagement (and military engagement) are constantly changing: the historical nature of Russia, a country itself constantly undergoing convulsive change and dramatic reversals. Russia was czarist before it was communist, then was capitalist and now is a one-man proto-dictatorship. It was allied with Nazi Germany before it was battling Nazi Germany. It was the clear leader in the Cold War space race (with the 1957 Sputnik launch and the pioneering 1961 orbital space flight of Yuri Gagarin, which were celebrated by Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev) before it was the clear laggard to the Americans (with Project Gemini, Project Apollo, and the 1969 redemption of President Kennedy's promise to land an American on the moon). The reprise line of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger's You Can't Always Get What You Want may offer a way for all three parties to view the almost certainly unsatisfying resolution to a war that has stretched well past three years: 'But if you try sometimes, you just might find/You get what you need.' For in the end, whenever it comes, all three parties may claim they got what they needed. It may be that truth is the first casualty of war. But the truth will also likely be the last casualty of the war in Ukraine.
