Trump’s increasingly sharp rhetoric toward Ukraine and Europe — which he has described as “decaying” and “weak” — follows a new U.S. national security strategy that took aim at the continent and was welcomed by Moscow.
“I think he doesn’t want to get pulled into another round of negotiations,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London-based security think tank. “He feels that the deal needs to be done, and I think that there is a real risk that he will do a deal over the heads of the Europeans with Russia.”
Trump may feel that the Europeans are trying to drag their feet with endless meetings, Melvin said. That “is feeding into a wider sentiment amongst many of those around Trump, which is, I think, to say mildly, a skepticism about Europe as an actor, and particularly the European Union.”
The Kremlin signaled Thursday it saw itself as increasingly on the same page as Washington.
The two sides had now “resolved all misunderstandings” on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We have reason to believe that the Americans are sincerely interested in this conflict being resolved fairly,” he said, after talks between Trump’s envoys and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month.
Lavrov, who has been largely absent from the peace talks but re-emerged in recent days, said Russia had submitted additional proposals to the U.S. regarding collective security guarantees, which Ukraine and Europe say are essential to any deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that negotiators are wrestling with the question of territorial possession in U.S.-led peace talks on ending the war with Russia, including the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s 10 biggest atomic plants.
Among the issued Zelenskyy shared were that Russia wants to incorporate the entire Donbas, which Ukraine opposes. He also said the United States proposed turning Donbas into a “free economic zone.” This would mean Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas, and Russia refrains from entering the parts of Donbas it does not currently occupy.
Zelenskyy revealed details of the ongoing discussions before he headed into urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that support Kyiv’s efforts to obtain fair terms in any settlement to halt nearly four years of fighting.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine submitted a 20-point plan to the U.S. on Wednesday, with each point possibly accompanied by a separate document detailing the settlement terms.
“We are grateful that the U.S. is working with us and trying to take a balanced position,” Zelenskyy told reporters in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. “But at this moment it is still difficult to say what the final documents will look like.”
Yuliya Talmazan
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