Ukraine Is Still Far from Peace. What Was Actually Decided at the White House?
What U.S. safety guarantees? What about Putin’s talks with Zelenskyy? What territorial arrangements are there? The Washington summit leaves more questions than answers.
It takes two to tango, but here there's only one. During a meeting of top European leaders and Donald Trump Monday night, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his readiness to negotiate with the bloody Russian satrap.
This summit was supposed to be the beginning of a series of top-level meetings — another with Trump, and then another with the Europeans. To this end, the American leader interrupted the meeting with his guests and called Moscow to get Vladimir Putin's consent. But the Russian, who believes that Zelenskyy is not the legitimate leader of the country because he has not organized presidential elections, made no such commitment. Putin spoke only of “raising the level” of bilateral talks.
This isn’t the only signal of the Kremlin's intentions. Another is the continued shelling of Ukraine. “I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now. His goal is to seize as much territory as possible to weaken Ukraine,” Emmanuel Macron said after the meeting.
The fundamental differences of opinion didn’t end there. Trump pressed the Ukrainian leader to agree to give Russia the western part of the Donetsk region, in exchange for which Putin was promised a ceasefire. “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote on social media before the meeting.
But Zelenskyy, who, as his host expected, had swapped his combat uniform for a suit for the occasion and bent over backward to win the American leader's sympathy, politely but firmly rejected this scenario.
According to Trump's idea, Kyiv would receive “security guarantees” from the Americans for territorial concessions. What concessions? We don't know. The U.S. president mentioned only that the U.S. would “get involved” and “coordinate” the actions of the Europeans. The assurance of his special envoy Steve Witkoff two days earlier that there would be provisions similar to Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty has not been repeated in the White House.
Macron thinks such guarantees should rest on two pillars. First, a fully armed Ukrainian army. That's why at the summit it was announced that the Europeans would buy $90 billion in weapons from the Americans for Ukraine. The second pillar would be NATO troops in Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte noted that discussions on this issue will continue. But the immediate from Moscow was negative. This was the direction taken in the firm statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, which harked back to Stalinist rhetoric.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a quick ceasefire in Ukraine. In this situation, holding onto the western part of the Donetsk region becomes the best security guarantee for Ukraine. Even if it angers Trump. This is where there is a 50-kilometer (approximately 31-mile) fortification line built over a decade, which would take the Russians years to breach and cost hundreds of thousands of lives, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Even before the Aug. 15 summit with Putin in Alaska, Trump said that if the dictator does not agree to a ceasefire, Russia would suffer severe consequences. In essence, it was about secondary sanctions on countries that buy energy carriers from Moscow. However, at the meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders, there was no further talk of sanctions. Trump, on the other hand, argued that a ceasefire would be counterproductive, as it could allow one side to gain an advantage through faster rebuilding of its armed forces. In the billionaire's view, the parties should seek a lasting peace immediately This has long been Putin's idea, as he believes he has an advantage at the front, and before the war ends, he wants to make Ukraine a vassal state.
However, European leaders, who, like Zelenskyy, continuously praised Trump to avoid an open clash, clearly objected to this point. Chancellor Merz said he “cannot imagine” that there would not be a halt to the fighting when it comes to the next summit, with the assumption that Zelenskyy and Putin will participate.
An extraordinary show of European unity, in which, unfortunately, the Polish representative did not take part, greatly strengthened Ukraine. It averted the risk of fulfilling the Kremlin's main goal: dividing the trans-Atlantic community because of fundamental differences on the Ukrainian issue. However, no one knows how long this agreement between the U.S. and Europe will continue. There is great risk that Trump will quickly realize that without Putin's conditions, on which the Europeans and Zelenskyy disagree, it is impossible to put an end to the war. And Trump's dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize this fall will not come true. At that point, it will be hard to predict how the U.S. leader will react.
It takes two to tango, but here there's only one. During a meeting of top European leaders and Donald Trump Monday night, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his readiness to negotiate with the bloody Russian satrap.
This summit was supposed to be the beginning of a series of top-level meetings — another with Trump, and then another with the Europeans. To this end, the American leader interrupted the meeting with his guests and called Moscow to get Vladimir Putin's consent. But the Russian, who believes that Zelenskyy is not the legitimate leader of the country because he has not organized presidential elections, made no such commitment. Putin spoke only of “raising the level” of bilateral talks.
This isn’t the only signal of the Kremlin's intentions. Another is the continued shelling of Ukraine. “I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now. His goal is to seize as much territory as possible to weaken Ukraine,” Emmanuel Macron said after the meeting.
The fundamental differences of opinion didn’t end there. Trump pressed the Ukrainian leader to agree to give Russia the western part of the Donetsk region, in exchange for which Putin was promised a ceasefire. “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote on social media before the meeting.
But Zelenskyy, who, as his host expected, had swapped his combat uniform for a suit for the occasion and bent over backward to win the American leader's sympathy, politely but firmly rejected this scenario.
According to Trump's idea, Kyiv would receive “security guarantees” from the Americans for territorial concessions. What concessions? We don't know. The U.S. president mentioned only that the U.S. would “get involved” and “coordinate” the actions of the Europeans. The assurance of his special envoy Steve Witkoff two days earlier that there would be provisions similar to Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty has not been repeated in the White House.
Macron thinks such guarantees should rest on two pillars. First, a fully armed Ukrainian army. That's why at the summit it was announced that the Europeans would buy $90 billion in weapons from the Americans for Ukraine. The second pillar would be NATO troops in Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte noted that discussions on this issue will continue. But the immediate from Moscow was negative. This was the direction taken in the firm statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, which harked back to Stalinist rhetoric.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a quick ceasefire in Ukraine. In this situation, holding onto the western part of the Donetsk region becomes the best security guarantee for Ukraine. Even if it angers Trump. This is where there is a 50-kilometer (approximately 31-mile) fortification line built over a decade, which would take the Russians years to breach and cost hundreds of thousands of lives, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Even before the Aug. 15 summit with Putin in Alaska, Trump said that if the dictator does not agree to a ceasefire, Russia would suffer severe consequences. In essence, it was about secondary sanctions on countries that buy energy carriers from Moscow. However, at the meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders, there was no further talk of sanctions. Trump, on the other hand, argued that a ceasefire would be counterproductive, as it could allow one side to gain an advantage through faster rebuilding of its armed forces. In the billionaire's view, the parties should seek a lasting peace immediately This has long been Putin's idea, as he believes he has an advantage at the front, and before the war ends, he wants to make Ukraine a vassal state.
However, European leaders, who, like Zelenskyy, continuously praised Trump to avoid an open clash, clearly objected to this point. Chancellor Merz said he “cannot imagine” that there would not be a halt to the fighting when it comes to the next summit, with the assumption that Zelenskyy and Putin will participate.
An extraordinary show of European unity, in which, unfortunately, the Polish representative did not take part, greatly strengthened Ukraine. It averted the risk of fulfilling the Kremlin's main goal: dividing the trans-Atlantic community because of fundamental differences on the Ukrainian issue. However, no one knows how long this agreement between the U.S. and Europe will continue. There is great risk that Trump will quickly realize that without Putin's conditions, on which the Europeans and Zelenskyy disagree, it is impossible to put an end to the war. And Trump's dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize this fall will not come true. At that point, it will be hard to predict how the U.S. leader will react.
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