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 the 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 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.”