After being sideline observers at US President Donald Trump's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, European leaders returned to the negotiating table at the White House on Monday, the European Newsroom reported – a platform for cooperation between 23 European news agencies, including BTA.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are moving closer to their first meeting since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three and a half years ago, after intense diplomatic talks over the past week.
Following Monday's meeting between a group of European leaders, US President Donald Trump and Zelensky at the White House, the US also agreed to help its European allies provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the event that a peace agreement is signed to end the war with Russia.
This development was welcomed by European leaders, who have strongly supported Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
"After three and a half years of war, diplomatic activity is accelerating and there is growing momentum to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, including US President Trump's agreement to participate in these efforts," European Council President Antonio Costa said yesterday after videoconference meeting of the European Council.
Trump said he spoke with Putin on the phone on Monday and had begun arranging a meeting between him and Zelensky. It would be the first such meeting since 2019.
"After this meeting, we will have a trilateral meeting, which will involve the two presidents and myself," Trump said in a post on his social network "Truth Social" after meeting at the White House with Zelensky and European leaders. Trump added that this was "a very good first step in stopping the war that has been going on for almost four years".
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Monday that talks were underway for security guarantees for Ukraine, similar to those provided to member states of the pact. Trump yesterday ruled out the possibility of deploying US troops on the ground.
How did it get to this point?
European leaders and Ukraine were excluded from the negotiations, and the meeting was criticized by some analysts for literally rolling out the red carpet for Putin.
"There is no real progress and apparently the score is 1:0 for Putin – no new sanctions. For the Ukrainians - nothing. For Europe - a deep disappointment", wrote on the social network "Ex" former chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger.
Political analyst and former Slovenian MEP Klemen Groeschel noted that Trump said that the US would only be a mediator in the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, and explained in an interview with "Fox News" television after the meeting that Ukraine needs to realize that it is a small country and Russia is big. "In doing so, he sent a very clear message that the United States will not be among those who will defend and defend Ukrainian positions," Groeschel said.
According to an official familiar with the conversation that Trump had with Zelensky and European leaders during his flight from Alaska, the American leader supported Putin's proposal that Russia take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the front line in two others.
Putin "de facto wants Ukraine to leave Donbas" - a region consisting of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia currently controls only partially, the source said. In return, Russian forces will halt their advance into the coastal Kherson region and Zaporizhia region in southern Ukraine, where major cities are still under Ukrainian control.
A few months after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia announced in September 2022 that it had annexed all four Ukrainian regions, although its troops still do not fully control any of them.
Zelensky met with Trump at the White House on Monday and was later joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
The absence of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is noteworthy. This has drawn criticism from the Spanish opposition, which has accused Sanchez of downgrading Spain's role in the European Union after he refused to increase the country's defense spending to 5 percent of GDP at the last NATO summit.
Sanchez follows the EU's consensus position on Ukraine and insists that Kiev must be involved in any decision about the country's future. He also stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire to facilitate the achievement of a just and lasting peace.
What is Europe’s response and what role has it played?
European countries, fearing being ignored, are demanding guarantees that their positions and those of Kiev are not excluded from the US-Russia dialogue that could determine Europe’s long-term security.
European leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire as a first step towards peace, demanded binding guarantees for Ukraine’s security and warned Trump not to trust Putin’s assurances.
The ceasefire issue is one on which the US and Europe may disagree. Trump is no longer pushing for one and believes a full peace agreement can be reached without a ceasefire, while Merz on Monday stressed its importance.
Macron was also cautious about the likelihood of a ceasefire as a result of a possible meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
"We have the American president and Ukraine who want peace [...] But I am not convinced about Putin“, he said, adding: “His ultimate goal is to seize as much territory as possible, to weaken Ukraine and make it unviable on its own or to bring it back into Russia's sphere of influence. That’s pretty obvious to everyone.”
“While it’s positive that there was no disagreement between Trump and Zelensky when they spoke together to the media from the White House three days after the Alaska summit, Trump did little to dispel the notion that the United States would support a comprehensive peace agreement, largely on Russia’s terms. Putin is still the one calling the shots,” said David Salvo, managing director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund.
Other experts noted the return of European leaders to the game.
“In February, there were questions about whether Europe “would have a seat at the negotiating table.” Yesterday’s meetings show that Europe does, in fact, have many seats at the table. This fundamentally changes the nature of these negotiations. "European leaders deserve credit for figuring out an approach that works with Trump," Mujataba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk firm, said in an article in "Ex".
Europe is united in its pursuit of peace, but some countries are showing differences
After Sunday's videoconference meeting of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" (a group of countries coordinating military and economic aid to Ukraine - note: European newsroom), Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said in an article in "Ex" that guarantees for Ukraine's security must include sustained support from both Europe and the United States. He said the videoconference meeting had underlined the priority of stopping the killings and supporting a lasting and just peace in Ukraine based on the principles of international law.
Asked about Friday's meeting between Trump and Putin and the future of the war in Ukraine, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told reporters that the meeting in Alaska restored dialogue and hope for peace for all.
Albania, an EU candidate,'s position on Ukraine is also in line with the positions of both the European Union and NATO, of which it is a member.
Within Europe, however, not all leaders share the same view on the conflict.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, a critic of EU support for Ukraine, said the meeting between Trump and Putin officially marks the beginning of the normalization of relations between the United States and Russia. According to him, the way forward is not about "blaming" of the Russian political leadership or the imposition of sanctions, but in constructive dialogue.
He was criticized by the opposition for repeating Russian arguments. "Have you seen the reactions of our government, the prime minister and the defense minister, Robert Kaliniak, to the still unconfirmed agreement and Russian demands for Alaska?" said Michal Šimečka, leader of the opposition party "Progressive Slovakia". "Both immediately publicly sided with Russia, saying that Russia must be given security guarantees and that it was necessary to discuss what Putin called "removing the root causes of the conflict".
Hungary is another prominent critical voice.
Ahead of the Alaska summit, all EU member states except Hungary signed a letter expressing their support for Trump's peace initiative and warned that it was the Ukrainians who had the "right to choose their own destiny", while calling for sanctions against Russia.
What next?
The coming weeks will be crucial in determining whether Trump's push for direct talks between Zelensky and Putin will lead to real progress or entrench existing differences.
The format, venue and agenda remain unspecified. Any negotiations are likely to face inevitable obstacles, not least Ukraine’s insistence that it will not cede sovereign territory and Putin’s determination to secure recognition of Russia’s territorial gains.
For Europe, the challenge is to remain a significant player in a process increasingly shaped by Washington and Moscow. European officials are pushing for security guarantees that go beyond declarations. NATO allies remain wary that Trump could force Kiev to make a deal favorable to Moscow in order to claim a foreign policy victory.
Meanwhile, the fighting continues, with Russia launching a major nighttime attack on Ukraine with drones and missiles on Monday, and Ukraine striking a Russian oil refinery with a drone.