A second diplomat confirmed the allies were happy to support the American initiative to broker a truce, not because they necessarily thought it would work, but “because it will be a clear test of Russian intentions.” A third said security guarantees being developed would help Ukraine “negotiate from a position of strength,” while sanctions would ensure “we … have leverage on Putin.”
Leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, France’s Macron, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, jetted to Washington on Monday to back up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a sit-down with Trump. That came just days after the U.S. leader hosted Putin for talks in Alaska and claimed to have made progress on “many points.”
“This is a constant Trump management exercise for everyone — Putin included, by the way,” Fiona Hill, a former advisor to the Republican in his first presidential term and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told POLITICO.
“But I think they did as good a job as you could expect on Monday.” According to her, the best that could have been hoped for from the Alaska summit was “something they could work with — and it seems like there was something, even though the optics were terrible.”
Penny drops for Trump
Western partners have lavished praise on Trump — thanking him for hosting the talks, and expressed genuine relief after he appeared to give substantial assurances that the country would play a role in security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace deal. Behind closed doors, however, they are more focused on pushing for new, hard-hitting economic restrictions if and when Moscow refuses to end its invasion.
“Everyone is going through the motions,” a fourth EU diplomat said. “But we don’t know what Putin’s end game is. What will motivate Putin to give any concessions? I don’t know.”