Those who heard the European leaders speak on Wednesday after their video call with Donald Trump, heard two groceries come by time and time again. The first: the American president is really on the side of Europe and Ukraine when he travels to Alaska on Friday for his top consultation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to that of the Kremlin. And the second: Ukraine will not just be distributed by the two presidents on the drawing table.
From KYIV and the rest of Europe, tense is made for Friday. It will be Putin’s first meeting with an American president since he invaded Ukraine in 2022. Since then, the West has diplomatically isolated the Kremlin. Trump himself speaks of a ‘scan interview’. On Tuesday, the White House described the consultation as a ‘listening exercise’.
And yet: no one knows for sure what will happen on Friday. The inserted video approach with Trump was the best and only chance for both Ukraine and Europe to prevent the US president from making substantial concessions. They said they received those commitments from Trump.
Ceasefire
Trump would have agreed that a peace agreement on Ukraine cannot be established without Ukraine. There will also be no question of the possible exchanging territory without Ukraine. Moreover, this is only discussed after a cease-fire. And if Russia continues to reject a ceasefire, new sanctions can follow.
Trump said afterwards that a refusal of Putin to end the war will have “very serious consequences”, although such threats remained at the address of the Kremlin in the past without consequences.
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reviewed the video meeting afterwards as “an exceptionally constructive and good conversation.” Merz had taken the initiative for the meeting. He received the Ukrainian President Volodyymyr Zensky for the occasion in Berlin. “There is hope for peace for Ukraine,” said Merz during a press conference, with Zensky next to him.
It was important for Zensky and the Europeans that the division of Ukraine will not be discussed on Friday. The fear was that Trump would admit to Putin’s wish for transferring Ukrainian areas to Russia. On Monday he had stated that the exchange of territory will have to be part of the peace process at some point. Trump alluded that Russia could not retain all conquered areas, but that Ukraine should in any case definitively say goodbye to part of his territory.
There is hope for peace for Ukraine
That would not be the case now now. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, “can and will be about territorial issues that are about Ukraine only and only be negotiated by the President of Ukraine,” and Trump agreed.
Neither Zensky nor the European leaders can keep Trump his word. It is he who determines on Friday which tone he is striking to Putin. It is he who can be the only one to decide how many concessions he wants to do to put an end to the war in Ukraine, a war that he said during the campaign that he would end him as president within the first 24 hours.
Peaceor
Wednesday’s consultation was the best and last chance for Team-Inzelsky and the Europeans to press Trump close to the chest. Zensky, who said afterwards that he felt supported by Trump, added a warning: “Putin bluffed. He wants absolutely no peace. He wants to occupy our entire country.”
With the other leaders it dominates Trumps involvement. “Thanks to the American president, we have a serious chance of a ceasefire,” were the rave words of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. NATO chef Mark Rutte announced on X that he particularly appreciated Trump’s leadership and the close cooperation. “The ball is now with Putin,” said Rutte.
Trump as a possible peace founder: it is precisely the role that the president has devised for himself. On Tuesday, the White House shared a list of foreign governments and ministers who nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Peace. Trump himself, who has often already expressed his frustration, finds that he has not yet received the Nobel Prize, that it is sometimes time.
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