The White House speaks more important than the American summit of Russia in Alaska

It is quite possible that the Monday meeting at the White House can be even more crucial for the future of Ukraine – and for all the security of Europe – than the American summit in Russia last Friday in Alaska.

On the surface, this Putin-Trump meeting seemed to live in all expectations.

There was no ceasefire, no sanctions, no big announcements.

Were Ukraine and Europe about to have a closed-cutting agreement withdrawn by the two largest nuclear powers in the world?

Not, apparently, if Ukraine and its partners can prevent it.

The presence of Sir Keir Starmer, President Macron, Chancellor Merz and other leaders alongside President Zelensky in Washington is much more than ensuring that he is not caught in the oval office, as he did on February 28.

They are determined to impress two things to Donald Trump: first, there can be no peace accord for Ukraine without the direct involvement of Ukraine and secondly, that it must be supported by safety guarantees “ cast iron iron ”.

Above all, the leaders of Europe want the American president to see that Ukraine and Europe present a united front and that they are impatient to ensure that it is not influenced by his obvious personal relations with Vladimir Putin to give in to the requests of Russian leaders.

This is where Sir Keir Starmer’s diplomatic skills will be strongly tested.

Trump loves Starmer and listening, and in a month, Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom during a state visit.

He also likes Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the NATO who will be present, a man who is sometimes called “Trump’s whisper”.

The American president seems to be less loved by President Macron and the White House was recently critical of his intention to unconditionally recognize a Palestinian State at the next United Nations General Assembly.

For a peace agreement in Ukraine to have a chance to work, something must give.

European leaders have frequently declared that international borders cannot be modified by force and that President Zelensky had declared many times that he will not abandon land and, in addition, the Constitution of Ukraine prohibited it.

But Putin wants the Donbas, that his forces already control around 85%, and he has absolutely no intention to return Crimea.

However, like the former Estonian Prime Minister and now the first diplomat in Europe, Kaja Kallas, said one day: victory for Ukraine in this war does not have to be exclusively on the reconquest of occupied lands.

If Ukraine can obtain the type of security guarantees of article 5 which are now discussed, sufficient to dissuade any future Russian aggression and thus relevant its independence as a free and sovereign state, then it would be a form of victory.

It now seems that what the United States and Russia have discussed is a proposal that largely negotiates certain Ukrainian lands to guarantee that it will no longer have to give up Russia.

But the question marks are enormous.

Could Ukraine accept an agreement which ends the war but which costs it land, especially when so many thousands died by trying to save this land?

If he is invited to abandon the remaining 30% of the Donetsk Oblast that Russia has not yet occupied, then does this leave the way to the west in Kyiv dangerously underdefent?

And what about the very praised coalition of Starmer of the will?

Previous discussions on the deployment of tens of thousands of boots on the ground have since been reduced.

Now, it is more to “save the sky and the seas” while helping Ukraine rebuilding its army.

But even if peace explodes on the battlefield, we are still in dangerous territory.

Each military expert to whom I spoke believes that the moment when the fight stops Putin will reconstruct his army, will build more weapons, until he is in a position, perhaps in as little as three to four years, to grasp more land.

If and when this happens, it will be a brave typhoon or an F35 driver which is ready to shoot this first missile on a Russian chronicle in progress.