- Trump says that NATO and Crimea “out of the table” for Ukraine.
- Ukraine fears pressure to accept demands of Russian lands.
- There is no progress in the fire after the Trump-Poutin summit.
Washington: The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said that claiming Crimea or entering NATO were out of the table for Ukraine, since President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for Monday's conversations aimed at finishing the war with Russia.
Zelensky, who has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, will meet with Trump in Washington on Monday, accompanied by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and other leaders.
The meeting occurs immediately after a summit between Trump and Vladimir Putin de Russia in Alaska on Friday, which failed to produce a high fire progress, but produced promises from both leaders to provide “solid security guarantees” to Ukraine.
Zelensky was not invited to Alaska's meeting, after which Trump turned to the Russian position of long data that the fire was not needed before a final peace agreement.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants, or can continue fighting,” Trump published on his social networks. “Remember how it started. Do not recover Obama with Crimea (12 years ago, without shooting a shot!), And without going to NATO for Ukraine. Some things never change!”
Trump and Zelensky are expected to meet one by one before they join a cohort of European leaders on Monday, according to the White House calendar.
Together with Von der Leyen, the boss of NATO Mark Rutte and the leaders of Great Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy will be present.
It will be the first time that Zelensky visits Washington since he broke with Trump and vice president JD Vance in February when the two men rebuked the Ukrainian leader for being “ungrateful.”
On Sunday night, after arriving in Washington, Zelensky said: “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliable.”
Security guarantees
From the oval office row in February, Trump has become more critical of Putin and has shown some signs of frustration when Russia stopped repeatedly in peace conversations.
But Washington has not imposed additional sanctions on Moscow and the luxurious welcome offered to Putin in Alaska on his first visit to the West since Ukraine invaded in 2022 was seen as a diplomatic blow to Russia.
Speaking in Brussels on the eve of his visit to the United States, Zelensky said he was eager to listen more about what Putin and Trump argued in Alaska.
He also praised the offer of Washington security guarantees to Ukraine as “historical.”
Trump said he spoke with Putin about the possibility of a collective guarantee of NATO -style for Ukraine.
The promise would be outside the framework of the Western Military Alliance to which Ukraine wants to join and that is seen as an existential threat by Russia.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said European leaders would ask Trump “to what extent” Washington is ready to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine.
Discussion about Earth
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made “some concessions” with respect to five Ukrainian regions that Russia controls totally or partially, and said that “there is an important discussion with respect to Donetsk and what would happen there.”
“That discussion will be detailed specifically on Monday,” he said, without giving details.
Russia attached Crimea in 2014 after a simulated referendum and did the same in 2022 for four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia, despite the fact that their forces have not completely captured them.
An informed source in a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday said AFP That the American leader was “inclined to support” a Russian demand to receive territory, has not yet captured in the Donbas, an area that includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and that has seen the most mortal battles of the war.
In return, the source cited Trump by saying that Moscow would accept “freeze” the first line in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces have stripes of territory but not in regional capitals.
Until now, Russia has insisted that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the four regions as a condition prior to any agreement.
'Capitulation'
There is concern in Europe that Washington could press Ukraine to accept Russia's terms.
“To make peace prevail, the pressure must be applied to the aggressor, not to the victim of aggression,” said Poland's Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski on Sunday.
Macron said: “There is only one state that proposes a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
Zelensky has repeatedly rejected against the territory assigned, but said he is ready to discuss the issue in the context of a trilateral summit with Trump and Putin.
Trump has raised the possibility of such a meeting, but Russia has minimized the perspective.
Moscow's forces have gradually advanced but constantly in Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region.
The Russian attacks against Jarkiv killed three people and wounded more dozen, the Ukrainian authorities said on Monday, while a separate night attack in the Sumy region near the border wounded two others.
