With heavy European delegation, Zensky stands for an immense task to pull Trump in their direction again

The last time Volodyymyr Zensky visited the White House, half a year ago, ended in a verbal exhausting. It was a lonely face. As far as then it will not come on Monday. When the Ukrainian president arrives in Washington again for a visit to President Donald Trump, he has his main allies by his side.

But despite the company of a solid delegation of Europeans, including NATO chief Mark Rutte and state and government leaders from, among others, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Zensky’s assignment this time looks more difficult than in February. During that visit, a lucrative raw material deal, which was reversed by all the chiffy. Now Trump has to be talked about.

The US president is determined to end the war in Ukraine. And a bit quickly. The price that must be paid for this is of less importance to him: it is for the account of Ukraine and Europe. Trump has other interests. He wants to stop the bloodshed, tries to restore the relationship with Russia and Aast at a Nobel Prize in Peace.

Almost nothing goes too far in his peace mission. So even when Vladimir Putin showed during a top meeting in Alaska on Friday that he feels nothing for a ceasefire and first wants to see great concessions of Ukraine before he puts down the weapons, Trump did not contradict the Russian president. Afterwards he gave the conversation with Putin ‘a ten’.

Putin’s wish list

Ukraine and Europe had it checked. They have been working for a strike-fire for some time, so that negotiations can be made in some rest about the conditions for peace. The importance of such a ceasefire is even greater considering the terrain gain that continues to book slowly but steadily on the battlefield. Trump agreed with them, they thought. But that was before Friday.

Hard agreements or a joint statement did not come to the Air Force Base in Anchorage. But that did not mean that the top was without consequences. Trump soon announced that he no longer focused on a truce, “who does not stand anyway,” but on a comprehensive peace agreement. Then Trump told Europeans what, according to Putin, had to be in such a peace agreement.

To start with, the entire Donbas would be on the Russian wish list, also parts that Russia has not yet conquered militarily, and the preservation of all conquered parts of the provinces of Cherson and Zaporizja. Ukraine should also refrain from NATO membership and there should be a partial end to the sanctions against Russia. Finally, Putin demands a better status for the Russian language and the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. In exchange, Russia would then be willing to stop fighting and promise not to carry out new invasions.

This list is unacceptable for Ukraine and for Europe. Zensky does not worry about getting rid of areas in Ukrainian hands. “We need real negotiations,” he said on Sunday in Brussels, with European committee chairman Ursula von der Leyen next to him. “They can best start at the front line as it is now.”

ARTICLE 5

Zensky is better not only to convey such a message, his European colleagues realized. A struggle for words like in February would be even worse. The US has stopped financing armrest, but still provide important information to Ukraine, use sanctions against Russia and can play a role to guarantee the future safety of Ukraine.

That is why Zensky gets an important European delegation. In addition to Von der Leyen and Rutte, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz travels to Washington, just like French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who has a good relationship with Trump, are also present.

Zoom in

The presence of the Bonte Club European leaders reflects the difficult task that Ukraine and Europe now stand for. It is in their interest to pull Trump in their direction again, by convincing him to take more distance from Putin’s plans and issue security guarantees. The latter is not unfeasible. Steve Witkoff, Trumps peace-envoy, referred this weekend to “a kind of Article 5 warranty”-the promise of NATO countries to help each other in an attack-for Ukraine. Putin would even have accepted that, Witkoff said.

At the same time, Europeans, Zensky first know that it rarely works to contradict Trump. A new collision is not only for Ukraine, but also for Europe.

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