EU leaders have been on high alert this weekend to support the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenskibefore the attempt to Donald Trump of imposing a supposed peace plan cooked up with Vladimir Putin that, according to Brussels, is equivalent to a total capitulation of kyiv.
It is a return to square one that leaves the community leaders out of the game.. The EU had noted as its own victory that the president of the United States canceled just a few weeks ago the summit announced with Putin in Budapest, and to impose sanctions on Moscow for resisting a ceasefire. Brussels and Washington were marching together on Ukraine again.
Without warning his allies, Trump has changed his position again and uncritically assumes all the Kremlin’s demandsin a 28-point plan negotiated behind the backs of Ukraine and the EU. kyiv will have to reduce its Army by half, hand over Crimea and Donbas to Russia and not join NATO. The deployment of European deterrence troops is also prohibited.
“Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history and the dilemma between losing an important partner (the US) or its dignity. Either 28 difficult points or an extremely complicated winter,” Zelensky confessed in a 10-minute video. Trump has given him an ultimatum: he must accept his plan before Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in the US.
The latest move by the American president comes in a delicate moment for Ukraine. Zelensky’s government is caught in a corruption scandal; The Ukrainian Army is under increasing pressure on the front; and Russian airstrikes are destroying the country’s energy grid with winter on the horizon.
From the first hour of this Friday, lEuropean leaders have mobilized to support Zelensky and try to neutralize the entente between Washington and Moscow.
The EU repeats the strategy it applied after the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska in August: Seven leaders – with the notable absence of Pedro Sánchez – traveled urgently to Washington and managed to block the Kremlin’s plans.
To begin with, the German Friedrich Merzthe French Emmanuel Macron and the british Keir Starmer have had a telephone conversation with the president of Ukraine to express “their full and constant support on the path towards a lasting and just peace.”
European leaders have applauded “the US efforts to end the war in Ukraine.” But then They have refuted – yes, without citing it – the main elements of their peace plan.
Specifically, the four leaders defend ““that the line of contact is the starting point of an understanding, and that the Ukrainian Armed Forces must remain capable of effectively defending the sovereignty of Ukraine.”
“Any agreement that affects European States, the European Union or NATO will require the approval of European partners or consensus of allies“, underlines the statement made public by the German Government.
Afterwards, Zelensky spoke with the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, Mark Rutteas well as with the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenand the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa.
“From day one, Europe has supported Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. We have worked for a just and sustainable peace with Ukraine and for Ukraine, together with our friends and partners,” They have written after the call Von der Leyen and Costa in their X account.
“Today we discussed the current situation and We are clear that nothing should be decided about Ukraine without Ukraine“, defend the two top leaders of the EU.
For now, the only European leader who has been able to speak with Trump himself has been Chancellor Merz, in what he described as “cordial and confidential telephone conversation.” “We have agreed on the next steps at the advisory level,” has written on his social networks.
European leaders will meet this Saturday to seek solutions for kyiv on the margins of the G20 meeting being held in Johannesburg (South Africa), which Pedro Sánchez is attending but which has been boycotted by Trump. They will then meet again in Angola on November 24 and 25, at the EU-African Union meeting.
But the truth is that The EU has not been able in all these months to offer an alternative for Ukrainealthough Trump cut off his financial and military aid since coming to power. Although Volodymyr Zelensky’s Government urgently needs 135 billion to survive, Europeans remain blocked over the ‘reparations loan’ with Russian funds frozen.