European Leaders, Zelenskiy to Call Trump on Wednesday
What will European leaders hope to achieve then? They've put out this statement just in the last couple of minutes and they expect to have this call with the president tomorrow. Yeah, it's funny, Tom Well, I mean, they're pretty much resigned to the fact that Trump is going to meet Putin on his own without Zelenskiy or Ukrainian presence at all. And that's always been pretty much their nightmare scenario. So they're hoping to now influence Trump to make clear what they would consider to be unacceptable concessions based around sovereignty and territorial integrity before he gets to sit down with Putin and hear what the Russian leader has to say. What they're really concerned about is that he might make too many concessions in the discussions with Putin. That makes it very difficult then either for Europeans to to back that deal or for Zelenskiy to sell it to his people at home. And Trump, meanwhile, yesterday being asked about this meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday and seemingly downplaying expectations for what may come out of that. Yes, I mean, we have to remember that, you know, Trump is focused on one thing, really, which is to achieve a ceasefire. He came to power promising to end the war, and he's less concerned with the European worries about sovereignty and territorial integrity. So he wants to see what Putin has to say. He downplays the expectations because maybe, as he said, that there won't be an opportunity to reach a deal and he'll have to walk away. But I think the fact that he and Putin are meeting after six months indicates that both sides believe that there is something on the table that they might be able to reach agreement on. And so he wants to test that thesis when he sits down with Putin in Alaska. Tony, what is our understanding of the Kremlin's expectations for this summit? Well, the Kremlin is pretty happy, actually. I mean, Putin has been pressing for direct talks with President Trump for some time now. He's now got that he hasn't had to concede a cease fire in order to get that sit down. So he comes from a position of strength. His forces on the battlefield are advancing in Ukraine. He's managed to sideline Ukraine's leader and the Europeans. He gets to sit down directly with Trump and make his case for why he should be given this land that he's already occupying and has occupied now for a number of years.
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