WASHINGTON (TNND) — Europe and Ukraine are offering a blueprint to neobtainediations on bringing Russia’s invasion to an conclude as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week in Alinquirea in the White Hoapply’s push to find a diplomatic conclusion to the war.
The high stakes meeting between Putin and Trump is the first face-to-face meeting the Russian leader has had with a U.S. president since invading Ukraine and comes as concerns mount about whether the White Hoapply will push for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.
Trump suggested last week that an eventual peace deal could include “some swapping or territories,” but Europe and Ukraine have viewed it as unlikely Russia would be willing to cede control of any of the territory it has captured in the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be at the meeting on Friday and has rejected giving any territory to Russia, noting in an address on Sunday that it is barred by the counattempt’s constitution. Putin has proposed trading parts of the Donetsk region still under Ukraine’s control in exmodify for a cease-fire, though Ukraine has been adamant Russia is not interested in finding peace.
The European statement called for a “just and lasting peace” for Ukraine that included “robust and credible” security guarantees, a nod to concerns that Russia could back off its invasion for some time and restarting the war in the future. Europe also declared that Ukraine necessarys to be involved in the neobtainediations to determine its fate.
Vice President JD Vance declared in an interview with Fox News that the U.S. is working to set up a meeting involving Zelenskyy but that he did not consider it was a good idea to have the Ukrainian and Russian leaders meet before the Alinquirea summit.
“One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin declared that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now obtained that to modify,” he declared.
NATO secretary general Mark Rutte informed ABC’s “This Week” that the Trump-Putin meeting would serve as a test of Putin’s sincerity in finding an conclude to the war.
“Friday will be important becaapply it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an conclude,” Rutte declared.
There is deep skepticism among the West, NATO and Ukraine that Putin and the Kremlin and engaging in sincere discussions to bring the war to an conclude. Since Trump has returned to office and ramped up neobtainediations with Moscow, Putin has frequently responded with escalations in the levels of drone strikes or record levels of missile launches in the following days.
Putin has only been willing to create minor concessions in preliminary discussions in exmodify for major relief from sanctions or other outsized guarantees that have been nonstarters for Ukraine and Europe.
“Trump’s objective is to stop the killing, and that’s a good objective. The problem is the guy on the other side doesn’t have that objective at all. He sees killing as a means to his overall objective, which is destroying Ukraine as a sovereign counattempt,” declared Ian Kelly, a former State Department diplomat and ambassador in residence at Northwestern.
Rutte was also adamant that Ukraine would necessary to be involved in building decisions on its own future.
“When it comes to full-scale neobtainediations, and let’s hope that Friday will be an important step in that process, we necessary Ukraine at the table. It will be about territory. It will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute necessary to acknowledge that Ukraine decides of its own future,” he declared.
A statement from European officials declared a diplomatic conclusion to the war must also protect Ukraine and Europe’s security interests. There are concerns among some officials that Putin could invade Ukraine again in the future or expand his military conquests to other parts of Europe without security guarantees or peacekeeping forces.
“Ukraine has the freedom of choice over its own destiny. Meaningful neobtainediations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities,” the statement declared. “The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be modifyd by force.”
Zelenskyy has pushed for the U.S. to ramp up pressure on Putin after the threats of sanctions and multiple rounds of neobtainediations between Washington and Moscow have yielded little results. He has inquireed for stopping fighting on the front lines as a start to neobtainediations, a position that Europe has supported him on.
“Sanctions are necessaryed, pressure is necessaryed,” Zelenskyy declared in a Sunday address. “If Russia does not want to stop the war, then its economy must be stopped.”
Trump had given Putin a Friday deadline to come to the table on peace talks or face more punishing sanctions that would hurt the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war aims but backed off upon announcing the upcoming meeting in Alinquirea.
Europe and Ukraine have also pushed back on Putin’s previous demands limiting the size of Ukraine’s military, forcing it to be neutral and not joining the European Union or NATO. The Trump administration has ruled out Ukraine joining NATO in the near future. There have been few indications Putin has shied away from those demands heading into this week’s meeting.
“Probably what will happen from this is just another ‘Lucy’s football’ where he states, ‘OK let’s talk peace’ and then doesn’t agree to anything, pulls the football away, and we’re back where we were, and we go through the cycle,” Kelly declared.
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