Zelensky opens to negotiations. The Europeans, once again bypassed, are running for cover, with a phone call scheduled with the Ukrainian President, while in the afternoon in Kiev the American delegation will brief the EU envoys
All it took was a conversation with the US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to convince the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take into consideration the peace plan drawn up by Steve Witkoff And Marco Rubiowith the help of the Russian President’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
Zelensky accepts with reservations
In a short clip published shortly after the end of his conversation with Driscoll, the Ukrainian President declared on social media that «the American side presented the points of a plan to end the war: their vision. I have outlined our core principles. We have agreed that our teams will work on the points to ensure everything is authentic». For next week, however, The phone call between the Ukrainian leader and President Donald Trump is expected.
A conditional “yes”, in short. And it is not difficult to hypothesize the points on which Zelensky will want to force his hand: guarantees that lead to an automatic intervention by the West in defense of Kiev in the event of renewed Russian aggression, no limits on the Ukrainian armed forces and, most important of all, avoid placing a constitutional constraint that prevents Kiev’s accession to NATO.
Points also reiterated yesterday by the Ukrainian representative to the United Nations Khrystyna Hayovyshynwho asserted that Kiev’s “red lines” must not be crossed, including i limits on army size And the right to choose which alliances to belong to.
Europe is trying to fit in
It can be said without any kind of exaggeration that the renewed diplomatic push has quite disconcerted the various Eurobureaucrats and European ministerswho yesterday were quick to repeat the mantra of “no peace without Europe and Ukraine”.
Kiev is now fully involved, so the only one excluded, at least for the moment, seems to be Europe. However, a meeting between a US delegation and the EU delegation stationed in the Ukrainian capital is expected on Friday afternoonwith the peace plan as the subject of the meeting.
Furthermore, as reported by the Financial Times, The leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany and France (all in South Africa for the G20) will hold a meeting on Saturday to discuss the plan.
the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, also in South Africa, declared that «we will discuss the situation both with European leaders and with the leaders present here on the sidelines of the G20», further adding that «he will contact President Zelensky to discuss the issue».
The Plan would be a total defeat for the EU
However, it is not difficult to understand the reason that led the United States to exclude Europe from the drafting of the plan. The European contribution to resolving the conflict is simply non-existentjust yesterday the head of EU diplomacy, the Estonian Kaja Kallaspublicly stated that the Union’s objectives are «first, to weaken Russia; second, support Ukraine.” It is therefore not surprising that such an interlocutor was not chosen as a mediator.
The peace plan, if implemented, would have been the only real defeat of the EU. In it Kiev will have to cede the entire Donbass And insert into its constitution the impossibility of accessing NATOWhile the deployment of any soldier belonging to a NATO country would be bannedwith all due respect to the “coalition of the willing”. However, Kiev would obtain security guarantees from the Americans, the Europeans, only billions to spend on reconstruction.
