The disputed territories and the guarantee that what happened in February three years ago with the Russian invasion of Ukraine never repeats itself again. These are the main knots to be resolved in the top of the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky accompanied by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor Friederich Merz, the Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, the Finnish Alexander Stubc and the British Premier Keir Starmer, together with the secretary of NATO Mark Rutte.
A high -level European delegation unprecedented to avoid the debacle of the meeting in the oval study last February and to guarantee a future of peace not only to Ukraine but to all of Europe. Although, according to the Bild, two meetings could take place in Washington: one bilateral between the American president and the Ukrainian president, and then the interview enlarged to European leaders. After the top in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump drastically reduced public declarations.
Video Von der leyen: ‘Ukraine must be able to maintain its territorial supplement’
“Great progress with Russia, stayed tuned”, he limited himself to writing on his social media Truth during the weekend spent playing golf in Virginia. Instead, his closest councilors, Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio, who participated next to him in the summit with the Tsar in Anchorage, spoke. The special correspondent assured that the leader of the Kremlin agreed to provide unprecedented guarantees, “solid”, for the safety of Ukraine and Europe, a move that according to him can represent a turning point in negotiations towards peace. In particular, Witkoff has mentioned a type of protection for Kiev on the model of article 5 of NATO, the one that establishes that an armed attack against a member of the Atlantic alliance is considered an attack on all the others. “We have come to an agreement that the United States and the other European nations could actually offer a formulation similar to Article 5,” said Trump’s envoy in an interview with the CNN explaining that it could be the only alternative to the entrance of Ukraine in NATO, to which Putin continues to oppose firmly. Zelensky said he was satisfied with this step forward on security guarantees and thanked the United States for helping to achieve this.
Video From Donetsk to the Russian language: Putin’s claims to the table on Ukraine
But for Kiev’s leader it is not enough: “It is important that America agrees to collaborate with Europe to provide guarantees to Ukraine. We are very grateful to the United States and the President for this signal, which is important for everyone in Europe. It is a significant change, but there are no details on how it will work and what the role of America will be, what the role of Europe will be, what the EU can do,” he asked. As for the territories in the viewfinder of Russia, Witkoff revealed that the tsar would be willing to make some concession on “five regions” Ukraine, but did not provide other details. Probably referred to Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzia and Crimea but there are those who think he was talking about Sumy or Kharkiv instead of the peninsula attached from Moscow in 2014. Zelensky for his part insisted that the “Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give in territories or exchange territories”.
“Since the territorial question is so important – he added – it should only be discussed by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia in the framework of the trilateral summit”. Shared position also by French President Emmanuel Macron who, however, proposed to expand the trilateral also to Europe. In the background, that non-ceased the fire that Ukrainian, old continent and the same Commander-in-Chief until a few hours earlier expected to obtain from the summit in the military base in Alaska. For Marco Rubio “he is still on the table”. But, he explained, “the main purpose is peace, not a truce”. The American secretary of state also warned that there is the possibility that “this war continues, that people continue to die”. In this case, even the United States – like Europe – are ready to impose new penalties against Russia and its allies.
Reserved reproduction © Copyright Ansa