Focus on security guarantees as Ukraine summit leaves path to peace unclear
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Monday's extraordinary summit at the White House with the U.S. president as a 'major step forward' towards ending Europe's deadliest conflict in 80 years and towards setting up a trilateral meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Trump in the coming weeks.
Zelenskiy was flanked by the leaders of allies including Germany, France and Britain at the summit and his warm rapport with Trump contrasted sharply with their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February.
But beyond the optics, the path to peace remains deeply uncertain and Zelenskiy may be forced to make painful compromises to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and which analysts say has killed or wounded more than 1 million people.
Russian air attack cuts power to parts of Poltava region, Ukraine says
While the Washington talks allowed for a temporary sense of relief in Kyiv, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. The energy ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine's only oil refinery, causing big fires.
'The good news is that there was no blow-up (at the White House). Trump didn't demand Ukrainian capitulation nor cut offsupport. The mood music was positive and the trans-Atlantic alliance lives on,' John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Kyiv and Moscow, told Reuters.
'On the downside, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what exactly the U.S. has in mind.'
Ukraine's allies were to hold talks in the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing' format on Tuesday to discuss the way forward. NATO chiefs of defence will also discuss security guarantees for Ukraine on Tuesday, a source close to the matter said, without mentioning further details.
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday his officials were working on the content of the security guarantees.
Russia has made no explicit commitment to a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any formats for discussing the peace process in Ukraine but any meeting of national leaders 'must be prepared with utmost thoroughness'.
'It doesn't smell like peace yet. I think Putin will not go for it, he is not that kind of person,' said a 63-year-old resident of Kyiv, Oksana Melnyk. 'I really wanted it all to end peacefully, but, unfortunately, a lot of our people died and it is very bitter.'
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