Donald Trump has put pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of Monday’s talks in Washington with European leaders, saying the Ukrainian president could end the war “almost immediately” if he wanted to. The US president also ruled out allowing Ukraine to join Nato or retake Russian-occupied Crimea as part of negotiations with Moscow.
Trump posted the remarks on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night, hours before he was due to meet European leaders including Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Zelenskyy at the Oval Office in a bid to counter a reportedly US-backed plan that would see Ukraine give up territory.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump posted. “No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and no going into Nato by Ukraine. Some things never change!!!” he added.
A minute later, the US president posted that it would be a “great honour” to host so many European leaders at one time at the White House.
The remarks may spark alarm among European diplomats keen to avoid a repeat of the public mauling of Zelenskyy during his last trip to the White House, in February, when Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, accused him of ingratitude and disrespect and told him: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now.”
Arriving in Washington for the meeting late on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he hoped Ukraine’s “shared strength” with the US and European counterparts would compel Russia to peace.
European leaders on Monday will reaffirm their support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and argue against any land swap plan that rewards Russian aggression. They will also seek further clarity on what security guarantees the US is willing to offer in the event of a settlement.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to international organisations in Vienna, said early on Monday that Russia agrees that any future Ukraine peace agreement must provide security guarantees to Kyiv, but added that Russia “has equal right to expect that Moscow will also get efficient security guarantees”.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
On a pure factual level he’s correct. Ukraine was never going to get Crimea back. They just weren’t. At the same time, as long as they had territorial disputes with Russia (which they’ve had since 2014 since Russia’s illegal annexation), they were never going to join NATO. Just wasn’t going to happen. That being said, he shouldn’t say these things unless they come with actual concessions from Russia. That’s what Trump doesn’t get. And also it looks so bad for unity purposes. You want to call yourself a master dealmaker Trump? Well then don’t preemptively surrender on these things. Idiotic.
So nothing is going to happen. Trump will continue to strongarm us into capitulation. We will refuse. Shamefull shit, really disgusting behaviour from the US.
I must confess I’m so curious to see what will come out of this meeting. For Trump to have either invited or accepted pretty much all of Western Europe’s main decisionmakers, it means that he really believes Europe will agree with whatever he agreed to in the Putin summit, considering it is Trump there’s a 50-50 chance between him really holding a checkmate card or making this *the* greatest embarrassment of the century, with all cameras broadcasting as him, Vance, Zelensky and Macron starts to shout at each other.
I mentioned once, can’t remember where, that the Ukrainian security assurances would come from a “mutual defensive agreement” with France and the UK. Both hold enough nukes to de facto assure a degree of MAD, Putin can sell this domestically as “no NATO near Russia anymore” (even if Poland, the Baltics and Finland are all in NATO, but I doubt the Duma will point that out to him) and the rest of Europe will not get anxious with the EU becoming a military alliance – plus, by the “reward” of Ukraine being a nuclear security deal with France, Brussels do not need to be worried about other EU candidates stomping their feet and pouting due to Ukraine getting a skip-the-line pass to join.
If what will be proposed is Donbas and Crimea and a wink-wink deal that Moscow will not throw a hissy fit with France giving Ukraine a nuclear umbrella (and here is something Macron will love as a PR to his “Europe Strong” project), then it means Putin and Lavrov walked out of their delulu puppet state ideas. If they convinced the US Administration that they’re “giving up something” and Europe flat out refuses…at least Trump will forget Brazil exists for a little bit. Eduardo Bolsonaro cannot realistically believe he will have 10 minutes of Rubio’s attention while Trump promptly goes into a melting PR or diplomatic war against France and Germany.