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European leaders join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Washington, DC on Monday, asking for the end of the Russian-Ukraine war, after the President of the United States, Donald Trump, abandoned his push for a cease-fire and the threat of punitive actions against Russia following his Alaska Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Secure a cease-fire in Ukraine, more than three years after Invasion of Russiahad been one of Trump’s basic requests before Friday Alaska summitto which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.
Special American envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Putin had agreed at the top with Trump to allow the American and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling the collective NATO defense mandate in the context of a possible agreement to end the war of 3 1/2.
“We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer type 5 protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he said in the state of the CNN program. Witkoff said it was the first time he heard Putin has accepted this.
The Zelenskyy of Ukraine, speaking in Brussels on Sunday after meeting the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in person and other European leaders, said the current war fronts should be the base of peace talks.
“We need real negotiations, which means that we can start where the front line is now,” said Zelenskyy, adding that European leaders support this and reiterating his longtime position that it was necessary to establish a cease-fire in order to then negotiate a final agreement.
But after the summit on Friday with Putin produced no clear breakthrough, Trump excluded an immediate ceasefire-a decision that aligns with Putin, which has long pleaded for negotiations on a final peace agreement.
According to a New York Times report, after his meeting with Putin, the American president also told European leaders that he had proposed to support a plan to end the war which implied that Ukraine abandoned parts of its territory to Russia.
Ukraine and its European allies have criticized Putin’s position as a way to buy time and press the progress of the battlefield of Russia, and they expressed faintness On the proposal to exchange Trump’s land from the start.
In an effort to try to show a front-front front of the American president at the White House on Monday, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the French president Emmanuel Macron, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, the president of the Finland Alexander Stubb, the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Von Der Leyen will accompany Zelenskyyyyy Washington, dc.
“The talks will tackle, among other things, security guarantees, territorial problems and continuous support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression,” the German government said in a press release in the American capital. “This includes maintaining pressure on sanctions.”
The objective of the talks on Monday in Washington is to present a united front between Ukraine and its European allies, said French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday. “If we show a weakness today in front of Russia, we throw the ground for future conflicts,” he said.
Macron said kyiv’s allies at the “Coalition of the Willing” Sunday meeting, which leaders joined by video before going to Washington, wanted a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine and so that the territorial integrity of Ukraine is respected.
The strength and safety of figures seem to be factors in the group visit, with still fresh memories hostile reception Zelenskyy received in February from Trump and the US vice-president JD Vance in a public aid in the White House, embedding the Ukrainian leader as ungrateful and “disrespectful”.
No land exchanges
While Zelenskyy praised Trump’s efforts to end the war, in an article on social networks on Saturday, he warned that “it could take a lot of effort to have the will to implement much more peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades”.
The Ukrainian president has also repeatedly reiterated that kyiv would not exchange any of his land to reach a cease-fire. The Constitution of Ukraine prohibits the famous territory.
According to Zelenskyy, Putin asked that Russia be given to the entire Donetsk region of Ukraine, from which kyiv still holds.
In exchange, the Russian forces would stop their offensive in the region of the Port of the Black Sea of Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south of Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian president said that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier” and stressed that he did not have the power to sign land exchanges. He declared that the evolution of the 1991 borders of Ukraine is contrary to the constitution of the country.
Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has gradually increased for months.
In his declaration after the Alaska summit, Putin has not pointed out any movement in Russia’s long -standing requests, which also include a veto on the membership desired by kyiv to the NATO alliance.
He also warned Ukraine and its European allies not to “create obstacles” and “that they will not try to disturb emerging progress by provocation or the intrigue behind the scenes”.
Trilateral summit in preparation?
The diplomatic objective is now going to Zelenskyy’s talks at the White House on Monday with European trailer leaders.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a peace agreement would still have a lot of work.
“We are not on the precipice of a peace agreement,” he said. “We have made progress in the sense that we have identified potential areas of agreement, but there are still large areas of disagreement. So we are still far away. “
“Now, in the end, if there is not a peace agreement, if there is no end of war, the president has been clear, there will be consequences,” Rubio told the ABC News program this week. “But we try to avoid this. And the way we try to avoid these consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities.”
Hachem Ahelbarra of Al Jazeera, postponing from Brussels, said that Ukraine and the European Union “were walking a fine line” during the press conference. While trying to show a united front, they were also aware of avoiding solid statements that could still upset the Trump administration.
Zelenskyy and Von der Leyen were intentionally vague when they were asked for a cease-fire, which they had long presented as a prerequisite for other talks, saying that the terminology was not important.
“They are waiting to hear what Trump will offer DC tomorrow,” said Ahelbarra.
