Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy: The high-stakes Alaska summit
Following intense pressure, Donald Trump agreed to hold a "virtual summit" via video conference with the 27 EU leaders on Wednesday, the 13th, before his face-to-face meeting with Putin in Alaska.
For the moment, nothing is clear, but EU leaders once again insisted that Kyiv be part of the U.S.-Russian negotiations. In fact, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance gave assurances that the United States is working to schedule a meeting between Donald Trump and his counterparts Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
European capitals have opted to support Kyiv's vision on any territorial exchanges in an effort to convince Trump that there is diplomatic weight behind a single red line: "Ukraine plus Europe" rejects concessions for territories still held by Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, the head of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have issued similar statements in support of an uncompromising approach to territorial concessions. The European paradox is thus highlighted once again as the crucial summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, August 15, approaches. Crucial to the implementation of any hypothetical peace plan in Ukraine, the Twenty-Seven have been left far behind by an impulsive U.S. administration eager to end the prolonged conflict.
Therefore, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will not be participating in this summit, has urged his European allies—especially France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, who are also excluded from the discussions—to define a common approach.
However, Trump agreed to the video conference with EU leaders on Wednesday, before his meeting with Putin, after Zelenskyy hinted that he might agree to cede territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed peace plan.
Zelenskyy told European leaders they must reject any deal proposed by Donald Trump that would require him to give up some Ukrainian territories that Kyiv still controls, but that the Ukrainian territory currently under Russian control could be put on the negotiating table.
This would mean freezing the front line where it is now and ceding de facto control to Russia over the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea.
Already on Saturday evening, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Finland, as well as the President of the European Commission, urged Trump to intensify "pressure" on Russia. They said that any negotiations should take place "in the context of a ceasefire or a reduction in hostilities" and warned that a diplomatic solution should include "strong and credible security guarantees" for Ukraine.
In a joint statement by the leaders of the European Commission, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Finland, it was stated that "the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations."
European officials believe that the Ukrainian president has some political leeway in the face of a growing number of voters who would accept ceding territory to Moscow as the price for ending the war.
However, Kyiv cannot afford to cede any additional territory, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, as this would allow Moscow's forces to freely bypass the fortifications built since the initial Donbas war in 2014.
The Ukrainian president would also face a complicated balancing act, as his country's constitution would prevent him from ceding territory without a nationwide referendum.
Zelenskyy had previously spoken about exchanging territories under Ukrainian control in Russia’s Kursk region. However, Moscow’s forces managed to break Kyiv’s control over the border region, which effectively ended these potential negotiations.
The Ukrainian president had previously acknowledged that his armed forces lack the necessary capabilities to reclaim territories held by Moscow, but that after any agreement, Kyiv could use diplomatic means to return the territories to its control.
Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territory, as agreed under the internationally recognized 1991 borders.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
