Vladimir Putin’s proposals for a peace deal include for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region, of which it currently controls a quarter.
The outline of Putin’s proposals appears impossible for Volodymyr Zelensky to accept. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the Donetsk region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks.
As part of any peace deal, Kyiv wants security guarantees sufficient to deter Russia, which took Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a full invasion in 2022, from attacking again.
Fearing that they would be shut out of the conversation after a summit to which they were not invited, European leaders held a call with Zelensky yesterday to align on a common strategy for the meeting with Trump today.
The presence of key European allies to back Zelensky may alleviate painful memories of Zelensky’s last Oval Office visit.
“It’s important for the Europeans to be there: (Trump) respects them, he behaves differently in their presence,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker from Zelensky’s ruling party, told Reuters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Zelensky.
“They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans,” he said. “We invited them to come.”
Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump took office in January.
However, Ukraine’s pressing need for US weapons and intelligence sharing, some of which have no viable alternative, has forced Zelensky and his allies on the continent to appease Trump, even when his statements appear contradictory to their objectives.
On the battlefield Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved.
Ukraine hopes that the changing technological nature of the war and its ability to inflict massive casualties on Moscow will allow it to hold out, supported by European financial and military aid even if relations with Washington collapse.
