News

Politico: Finnish President to travel to US with Zelensky. Europe wants to strengthen Kyivʼs position at meeting with Trump (UPD)

Author:
Iryna Perepechko
Date:

European leaders plan to send Finnish President Alexander Stubb to Washington, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to strengthen Kyivʼs position.

Politico writes about this, citing the words of two European diplomats and another informed source.

European leaders hope he can help defuse tensions between Trump and Zelensky and convince the US president to include Europe in further negotiations.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has built close contact with Donald Trump, may also travel to Washington, one source said.

UPD: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be at the meeting between Zelensky and Trump, she wrote about this in X.

"At the request of President Zelensky, I will join President Donald Trump and other European leaders at the White House tomorrow," she wrote.

The official added that she will meet Zelenskyy in Brussels today, from where they will join the video conference of the "Coalition of the Willing".

In addition to the President of the European Commission, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have already officially confirmed their participation.

Politico notes that Ukraineʼs European allies are eager to avoid the scenario that unfolded during Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs first visit to the White House in February of this year. Then Zelensky and Trump quarreled, and after that the United States temporarily suspended arms supplies and stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Relations between the two countries remained tense for some time, but gradually normalized.

Now, European and Ukrainian officials are concerned that Putin is effectively returning to the international arena without taking any real steps toward peace.

“It is clear that the results of the Alaska summit have caused concern in Europe, as Trump appears to have accepted a significant part of Putin’s arguments,” said former senior NATO official Camille Grand, who has spoken with European officials.

Politico writes that for Europe and Ukraine, the meeting with Trump on August 18 is "crucial" so that the US president does not agree to Putinʼs unacceptable demands, in particular the transfer to Russia of part of Ukrainian territories that Moscow only partially controls.

What is known now about the negotiations and their results?

Putin and Trump held talks in a “three-on-three” format on August 15. The meeting lasted about three hours, after which the US president and the Kremlin leader made brief statements, but did not answer journalists’ questions.

The leaders did not make any significant statements about the ceasefire in Ukraine and related issues, but both spoke positively about the talks. There were also no agreements on a trilateral summit with Zelensky’s participation.

After a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European leaders, and a meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Trump said that "all together" decided that we should move immediately to a peace agreement, rather than talk about a temporary ceasefire.

Reuters, citing sources, published a list of Putinʼs demands for an end to the war. These include the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, a ban on joining NATO, the lifting of sanctions against Russia, and "formal recognition" of Russian sovereignty over Crimea.

In return, Russia allegedly agrees to return the occupied parts of Sumy and Kharkiv regions and agree to certain security guarantees for Ukraine.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.