- Trump wants a quick peace agreement, not the high fire.
- Putin did not give any land in the conversations in Alaska.
- Zelensky’s last trip to DC ended in disaster.
Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine flies to Washington on Monday under strong pressure from the United States to accept a rapid end of the Russian war in Ukraine, but remains determined to defend kyiv’s interests, without generating a second oval confrontation with Donald Trump.
The president of the United States invited Zelensky to Washington after displaying the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, the enemy of the kyiv arch, at a summit in Alaska that surprised many in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have died since the invasion of Russia 2022.
Alaska’s conversations failed to produce the fire that Trump sought, and the American leader said on Saturday that he now wanted a fast and complete peace agreement and that kyiv should accept because “Russia is a very large power and they are not.”
The strong rhetoric throws responsibility directly to Zelensky, putting it in a dangerous position when he returns to Washington for the first time since his conversations with Trump in the Oval office in February descended to the acrimony.
The president of the United States rebuked him in front of the world media at that time, saying that Zelensky did not “hold the cards” in the negotiations and that what he described as kyiv’s intransigence risked to trigger World War Tres.
Trump’s search for rapid treatment challenges the intense diplomacy of European allies and Ukraine to convince him that a high fire should be the first, instead of, as the Kremlin requests, once an agreement is agreed.
A source familiar with the matter said Reuters That European leaders had also been invited to Monday’s meeting between Trump and Zelensky, although it was not clear who would attend.
Trump informed Zelensky about his conversations with Putin during a call on Saturday that lasted more than an hour and a half, said the Ukrainian leader. They joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added.
“The impression is that it wants a quick treatment at any price,” said a source familiar with the conversation.
The source said Trump told Zelensky that Putin had offered to freeze the front lines elsewhere as part of an agreement, if Ukraine completely withdrew his troops from the east regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, something that Zelensky said it was not possible.
Trump and the American envoy Steve Witkoff told the Ukrainian leader that Putin had said that there could be no fire before that happened, and that the Russian leader could commit to not throwing any new aggression against Ukraine as part of an agreement.
kyiv has publicly ruled out the idea of retiring from the Ukrainian land recognized internationally as part of an agreement, and says that the Donetsk industrial region serves as a fortress that retains the deepest Russian advances in Ukraine.
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, told Reuters on the phone that Trump’s emphasis on an agreement instead of a high fire entailed great risks for Ukraine.
“In Putin’s opinion, a peace agreement means several dangerous things: Ukraine does not bind to NATO, its absurd demands for denazification and demilitarization, the Russian language and the Russian church,” he said.
Any agreement of this type could be politically explosive within Ukraine, said Merezhko, adding that he was worried that Putin’s ostracism had ended.
Security guarantees
Avoiding a repetition of the oval office row is essential for Zelensky to preserve relations with the USA., Which still provides military assistance and is the key source of intelligence on Russia’s military activity.
For Ukraine, solid guarantees to avoid any future Russian invasion are fundamental for any serious agreement.
Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump and European leaders discussed the possible security guarantees for Ukraine similar to the promise of mutual support of the transatlantic alliance during their call. It says, in effect, that an attack against one is treated as an attack against all.
One of the two sources, which requested anonymity to discuss delicate issues, said European leaders were looking for details about what type of US paper. UU. It is expected.
Zelensky has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with Russian and American leaders is crucial to find a way to finish the large -scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Trump expressed this week the idea of such a meeting, saying what could happen if his conversations in Alaska with Putin were successful.
“Ukraine emphasizes that key problems can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” Zelensky wrote on social networks on Saturday. Putin’s assistant, Yuri Ushakov, told the Russian state news agency Tass that a three -way summit in Alaska had not been discussed.
