Zelensky could still attend Trump-Putin’s meeting, but the rest of Europe is excluded

It is the bilateral summit that all European leaders wants to be.

And for a good reason. Friday, Donald Trump is expected to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine.

Territorial concessions will probably be discussed, and Europe (notably Ukraine) does not want its borders to be redesigned by force.

But, as things arise, there is no invitation to the invasion of the country, or to the continent in which he is.

“Brace ourselves for fairly scandalous Russian requirements,” warns Lord Simon McDonald, a former head of the United Kingdom Foreign Affairs.

“It will be theatrical,” he adds. “Putin will ask for things that no one would concede – with the possible exception of Donald Trump.”

President Zelensky said that he will not accept the abandonment of land, or even the frost of the conflict along the current front lines.

His argument is that he will not slow down a Russian war machine that led A large -scale war for more than three and a half years. The concessions, he says, would only accelerate it.

“It is clear that Putin wants a photo with the most influential people on Earth, who is President Trump, and he wants the sanctions to be postponed, which he will probably get,” said the head of the EU foreign policy Kaja Kallas.

“The question is, what is success for the United States at the meeting?” she asked. “If President Zelensky is there, it would be a clear success.”

But if the leader of Ukraine is not at the Alaska table, how could Kremlin proposals be disputed?

“He could go there,” said the American president on this possibility. But Kyiv and Europe want it to go from a “perhaps” to a “yes”.

Adding to their anxiety is the head-to-head format being an idea of the Kremlin The White House accepted.

The European district of Brussels is not its usual Rafale of political activity in August, but these American-Russia talks changed this.

Monday, Kallas organized a virtual meeting of foreign ministers where they called for an unconditional ceasefire before any agreement. New sanctions for Moscow have also been announced.

I asked Kallas what she thought that Donald Trump meant by suggesting that land could be exchanged.

“We have to ask President Trump,” she said. “But it is clear that an attacker cannot be attributed for assault. Otherwise, we will just see more assault around the world because it is paying.”

Europe is trying to do two things: rallying in Ukraine, as well as muscles in this peace process led by Americans.

Whether Zelensky makes the trip or not, the door of Europe has remained firmly since Trump took over the office at the start of the year.

At the time, his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that the block would not be involved in peace talks. It is a position that Europeans could not change thanks to diplomacy.

Their relationship with the United States has always improved, in particular with a significant increase in its defense expenses. But Radoslaw Sikorski, Minister of Poland for Foreign Affairs, believes that he needs a more central role.

“This is a question of existential European security interest,” he explains.

“We appreciate Trump’s efforts, but we will also make our own decision in Europe.

“A simple ceasefire would not solve the problem.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz obtained a distance from European leaders, as well as Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump this Wednesday.

They hope to be consulted Americanly to put an end to the invasion of Russia, but the former head of the Foreign Affairs office, Lord McDonald, would be surprised to see a last -minute European invitation for Friday.

“The end will be as prolonged as the war has been long,” he warned.

“Reunion is an important step, but that does not actually mean that it will lead anywhere.”