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Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
‘It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory' – Taoiseach says after Trump's meeting with Putin
Micheal Martin attended a virtual leaders' meeting of the so-called 'coalition of the willing' in support of Ukraine on Sunday. The call was convened by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. On Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting Donald Trump with several EU leaders, including Mr Starmer, also travelling to Washington DC in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian president. Mr Martin, who will not be in Washington, said he had assured Mr Zelensky on Sunday that Ireland will 'continue to steadfastly support Ukraine'. EU leaders have agreed that sanctions and wider economic measures 'will be reinforced' if Russia continues its military action. The Taoiseach also said that he believes Ukraine needs 'long-term security guarantees'. Speaking after Sunday's online conference, Mr Martin said: 'I welcomed the opportunity to join other European leaders today to discuss developments on ending the war in Ukraine. 'We had a very useful engagement with President Zelensky as he prepares to meet with President Trump tomorrow in Washington. 'I welcome the initiative by President Trump to seek the ending of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Ireland, together with our European partners, continues to contribute to these efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.' The meeting of European leaders follows the US president's summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Mr Martin said it is 'essential that Ukraine is a full participant' in any discussions regarding its future. He said: 'I therefore welcome that President Zelensky will meet with President Trump in Washington tomorrow, together with other European leaders.' Mr Martin said he stressed that international law and principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity need to be respected for security in the region. 'It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force. 'I fully agree that Ukraine needs strong, credible, long-term security guarantees. This will mean sustained support from Europe, the United States and other partners. 'Ireland stands ready to play our part. Earlier this year we committed to providing non-lethal military support to Ukraine and we will look to do more. 'At today's meeting, I also reiterated Ireland's readiness to contribute to any peacekeeping force that is in line with the UN Charter.' The Taoiseach said Ireland will also continue to support Ukraine's EU membership ambitions, adding that Russia 'cannot have a veto' on the matter. 'Our joint efforts for peace should be combined with firm and co-ordinated pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire and engage seriously with negotiations on a just and lasting peace. 'We agreed today that sanctions and wider economic measures will be reinforced if Russia does not stop the killing. 'The human dimension and accountability must also be at the centre of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. 'Russia must urgently return Ukrainian children who they have abducted as well as prisoners of war and civilians being held unlawfully.' Meanwhile, special US envoy Steve Witkoff said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling Nato's collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the war. "We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato," he said on CNN's State Of The Union. Mr Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Mr Putin agree to that. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said that "we welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the 'Coalition of the willing' - including the European Union - is ready to do its share". Mr Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreed to "robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing". He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine. Mr Zelensky thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support security guarantees for Ukraine, but said the details remained unclear. "It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine," he said. "But there are no details how it will work, and what America's role will be, Europe's role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of Nato, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees." Mr Zelenskiy, speaking in Brussels on Sunday, said the current front lines in his country's war against Russia should be the basis for peace talks. "We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now," Zelenskiy said, adding that European leaders supported this. Zelenskiy reiterated his position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal. Mr Witkoff defended Mr Trump's decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made. "We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal," Mr Witkoff said, without elaborating. "We began to see some moderation in the way they're thinking about getting to a final peace deal," he said. European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump on Monday. They are rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The remarkable show of solidarity — with leaders from France, Britain and Germany saying they would be at Zelenskyy's side at the White House on Monday — was an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelenskyy in a heated Oval Office encounter. 'The Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated and so they want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt,' said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France's military mission at the United Nations. 'It's a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump," he said. The European leaders' physical presence to demonstrate their support for Ukraine could potentially help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on X that she will take part in the talks, 'at the request' of Zelenskyy. The secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte, will also take part in the meeting, his press service said. The office of President Emmanuel Macron said the French leader will travel 'at the side of President Zelenskyy' and that he, too, would visit the White House. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also take part in the meeting with Trump, according to a statement from 10 Downing Street. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also be part of the European group. Writing on X, he said he would discuss security guarantees, territorial issues, and further support for Ukraine. The grouped trip underscored European leaders' determination to ensure that Europe has a voice in Trump's attempted peace-making, after the U.S. president's summit on Friday with Putin — to which Zelenskyy wasn't invited. Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said European leaders are trying to 'shape this fast-evolving agenda.' After the Alaska summit, the idea of a ceasefire appears all-but-abandoned, with the narrative shifting towards Putin's agenda of ensuring Ukraine does not join NATO or even the EU.
Irish Independent
6 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Zelensky to be joined by EU leaders in Trump Washington meeting on Ukraine
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finnish president Alexander Stubb, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron have confirmed their participation. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni will join the talks as well. The move comes as European nations shift their focus toward providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees that will be discussed during a video call of the so-called coalition-of-the-willing countries on Sunday afternoon. Trump said after his talks with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday that he'll urge Zelensky to make a quick deal, and sounded receptive to the Russian president's demands that Ukraine give up large areas of land in the east of the country. European official are skeptical that a peace agreement can be rapidly reached, and that Putin even wants one. Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she'll host Zelensky in Brussels on Sunday afternoon before joining him, Trump and other European leaders at the White House meeting. Monday's talks will include, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, according to a German statement. It will be Zelensky's first visit in the White House since February, when his Oval Office encounter with Trump turned into a public shouting match and led to US briefly pausing military aid to Ukraine. While the two leaders patched up their relationship since then, the Ukrainian president needs all the support he can muster as the US president presses for a fast peace deal, and Putin sticks to his maximalist demands. Trump told European leaders on a call Saturday, following his talks with Putin in Alaska, that he was prepared to contribute to security guarantees with Europe so long as it didn't involve NATO, Bloomberg reported earlier. The US president suggested Putin would be OK with such an arrangement, people familiar with the matter said. The Kremlin hasn't commented. Trump also indicated he could be looking to organize a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as early as within a week, the people said. Zelensky has said repeatedly that he's willing to meet Putin. The Kremlin has yet to provide a similar commitment, and many European officials doubt he wants to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is halfway through its fourth year. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more The topic of a trilateral summit wasn't raised during the meetings in Alaska, Russia's state TV channel Vesti reported on Saturday, citing Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. The specifics of a US contribution to any security guarantees for Ukraine are unclear. The discussions have touched upon the possibility of granting Kyiv assurances from some allies - similar to those of NATO's Article 5 collective defense clause - which commits members to defend each other if attacked, said the people. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, and cautioned that a NATO-like mechanism would be difficult. An alternative would be bolstering, through US commitments, earlier plans coordinated by the UK and France, which included reassurance forces, monitoring and air-cover, the people said. Ahead of his meeting with Putin, the US president told allies that reaching a ceasefire would be his key demand. He also threatened to walk out of the talks and impose tough new punitive measures on Moscow and countries buying its oil if it wasn't met. Yet Trump signaled on Friday that he wasn't in a rush to implement fresh penalties on Russia's trading partners. Following his calls with Zelensky and European leaders early Saturday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that it had been "determined by all" that the best way to end the war was to achieve a peace dal and "not a mere Ceasefire Agreement." Most statements issued by European leaders on Saturday made no mention of a ceasefire. Trump told Zelensky and European leaders that Putin wants Ukraine to cede control of the entire Donbas region in Ukraine's east, renewing earlier demands, Bloomberg previously reported. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out giving up all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which comprise Donbas. Moscow's forces only partially control the region and have failed to take it militarily after more than a decade of fighting that predated Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia would also halt advancing its claims over the parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions it doesn't now control, effectively freezing the battle lines there. The Kremlin could also potentially withdraw troops from other regions such as Sumy and Kharkiv in Ukraine's northeast, areas near the Russian border where Kremlin forces control only small pockets of land. According to an assessment by the UK defense ministry, it would take Russia more than four years to fully occupy the four Ukrainian regions it laid claim to in 2022. That would come at a cost of nearly 2 million additional Russian casualties based on current battlefield advances, the ministry said on X. While maintaining that any territorial decisions are for Zelensky to make, Trump has repeatedly signaled that a peace agreement would include land "swaps," and has urged the Ukrainian president to make a deal. Russia's rejection of repeated calls for an interim ceasefire "complicates the situation," Zelensky said in a social media post late on Saturday. "If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater - peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades."
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
European leaders to join Zelenskyy when he meets Trump at the White House
European leaders will join Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he meets Donald Trump for peace talks at the White House on Monday. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finnish president Alexander Stubb were the first leaders to confirm they will join Mr Zelensky in Washington DC. Mr Zelenskyy's Oval Office rendezvous with the US president will take place after Western allies meet for a coalition of the willing video call on Sunday afternoon. The call will be hosted by British leader Keir Starmer, France's Emmanuel Macron and Mr Merz. Downing Street would not comment on whether Sir Keir plans to travel to Washington to join other European leaders on Monday. The show of unity by European leaders comes as Mr Trump appears poised to urge the Ukrainian leader to agree to a Russian land grab of his country's territory, according to reports. Several news outlets have reported Russian president Vladimir Putin has demanded full control of Donetsk and Luhansk – two occupied Ukrainian regions – as a condition for ending the war. In exchange, he would give up other Ukrainian territories held by Russian troops, several news outlets said, attributing sources familiar with Mr Putin and Mr Trump's negotiations in Alaska on Friday. Mr Trump is said to be inclined to support the plan, and will speak to Mr Zelenskyy about it when they meet in the Oval Office The European leaders may also fear a repeat of Mr Zelenskyy's last visit to the White House at the end of February. The tumultuous spat resulted in a souring of relations between the US and Ukraine.
