In the afternoon, a virtual meeting took place between the European leaders and the American president in view of Friday’s summit with Vladimir Putin, also present Zelensky.
Less than 48 hours from Summit in Alaska with the Russian president Vladimir PutinToday Donald Trump He held a virtual meeting with the main European leaders. The initiative had been announced on Monday by the German Chancellor spokesperson Friedrich Merz And it was intended to convey the European position and Ukraine regarding negotiations scheduled for Friday in the city of Anchorage, Alaska.
The Trump-Putin meeting, which will take place in the military base of Elmendorf-Richardson, will not see the participation of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, nor of any European leaders. The pressures of the politicians and heads of state of the old continent were of no use, in Alaska only the “greats” will meet, therefore today the virtual meeting of today has served to convey the position of Europe and Ukraine to the American president.
On the occasion of today’s meeting, the American president published a message on social media in which he announced: «I will talk to the European leaders soon. They are fantastic people who want to see a concluded agreement ». The intent was certainly to sweeten the bitter pill of exclusion from Friday’s interviews, on the other hand, President Zelensky also participated in the meeting, for the occasion arrived in Berlin, a guest of the German chancellor, in addition to Ursula von der Leyen, Giorgia Meloni, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, the president of the European Council Antonio Costa and the secretary of NATO Mark Rutte.
At the end of the meeting Zelensky and Merz held a joint press conference, where the Chancellor reiterated that “in Alaska the security interests of Europe and Ukraine must be protected”, while the Ukrainian president softened his position regarding the exchanges of territory, making a partial marker compared to the categorical refusal of the past few days and declaring that he does not want to comment because “the words have a weight”. Merz, however, commented, stating that “Ukraine is open to discussions about the territorial question, but the current front line must be the starting point”.
Speaking together with the French president Macronthe President of the European Council, Antonio Costasaid that “President Trump shared three very important goals with us: First of all the firethen that nobody in addition to Ukraine can negotiate what concerns Ukraine, and third element the availability of the United States to share efforts with Europe to strengthen the safety conditions when we have obtained lasting and right peace for Ukrainian “. The French president remarked that in the next summit on Friday with Putin, Trump will have the main objective of obtaining “of a ceasefire”.
It should be remembered that in recent days Trump has said that the talks in Alaska will be An “exploratory” meeting To try to get a cease in the Moscow war against Ukraine, after declaring last week, with great consternation for Kiev and Europe, which any agreement would entail “an exchange of territories”.
The Russian idea seems to be to propose the withdrawal of Kiev’s troops from the Donetsk Oblast (where Ukraine controls just under 30% of the territory) and in exchange Moscow would retire its troops with small portions of territory that controls in Kharkov, Dnipro and Sumy’s Oblasts.
