Europe’s rescue mission on Ukraine: keep Trump engaged

2 comments

1. Starmer and Macron have gone out of their way to throw a diplomatic arm around Zelenskyy — literally in the case of the UK prime minister at Downing Street on Saturday. King Charles also met the Ukrainian leader on Sunday.

   But behind the hugs was a hard warning to the Ukrainian leader that the path to any durable peace runs though the White House and that Zelenskyy must start talking to Trump again and sign a deal to hand over some future mineral rights in his country to the US.

   Starmer was at pains, according to British officials, to make it clear to Trump in a phone call on Saturday night that the Lancaster House summit was not a case of Europe trying to gang up against him.

   “The prime minister’s priority is to do whatever it takes to defend Ukraine,” said one Starmer ally. “That means the US has to be involved. You have to fix that relationship and get back to that minerals deal.”

   But Starmer, Macron and Meloni are also agreed, according to European diplomats, that they will have to lead the diplomatic efforts to preserve the US security guarantee, not just over Ukraine but over the whole continent.

   Starmer and Macron have promised a UK-French led force to provide reassurance in the event of a truce in the Ukraine conflict and are urging other European countries to join a “coalition of the willing”. So far there has hardly been a stampede to help.

   But they made it clear, according to British officials, that such a force would be doomed to fail unless the US provides a “backstop” — or more precisely air cover and surveillance to protect European troops on the ground.

   Starmer also noted the dangers of flawed agreements with Putin, citing the failure of the Minsk accords on Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. “We cannot accept a weak deal like Minsk that Russia can breach with ease,” he said.

   But Trump has given no indication he is prepared to offer assistance to ensure any agreement holds. European promises to re-arm — the president has been telling the continent to stop freeriding on US guarantees for the best part of a decade — may have come too late.

   There is also deep concern in some European capitals, especially those along the EU’s eastern flank that are most exposed to the Russian threat and especially dependent on American protection, that a rift with Trump over Ukraine could further undermine the US commitment to collective defence in Nato.

   But Germany, Spain and Poland are among those countries that have not committed to sending troops to Ukraine, while the EU is only now drawing up a plan to try to boost the continent’s spending on defence.

   There is growing frustration in London that some of Europe’s leaders need to stop publicly criticising Trump and his diplomatic assault on Zelenskyy and start showing the White House they have the will to take responsibility for their own backyard.

   “What Ukraine needs now is guns and butter,” said one Starmer ally. “It doesn’t need people tweeting and virtue signalling.” At Lancaster House on Sunday there was plenty of talk, but Europe knows it now needs to act.

2. Zelensky was counting on Europe to support him while he spats with Trump ?

   What a great strategist

Comments are closed.