Mounting Pressure On Trump To Rethink Summit With Putin (Worthy News Radio)
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald J. Trump came under mounting pressure Monday to rethink his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid fears he will negotiate on ending the Russian war against Ukraine without consulting Kyiv.
Several European leaders joined Germany in demanding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy be involved in the talks.
However, U.S. Vice President JD Vance stressed that the Trump administration’s goal remains to bring both the Ukrainian and Russian leaders to the negotiating table. “Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelenskyy, the head of Ukraine. Fundamentally, this is something where the president needs to force, President Putin and President Zelenskyy really to sit down to figure out their differences,” he said.
Yet there is concern that U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal without Kyiv’s approval. Trump’s former security adviser, John Bolton, says Friday’s Trump-Putin summit puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in a tough position.
“I think that by already pre-negotiating part of the Putin plan, Zelenskyy is being put in a position where he’s being presented with something that Trump may feel very comfortable with, and then you could be back closer to where we were in February during the famous debacle in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy,” Bolton stressed.
ZELENSKYY’S WARNING
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy already warned that Ukrainians, in his words, “will not give their land to occupiers”, adding that any solution without Ukraine would be “against peace”.
Britain said Monday that Ukraine’s borders are only for Ukraine to determine, and that any peace deal must be built with its involvement.
Speaking before a bilateral meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders scheduled for Friday in Alaska, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he hoped and assumed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would also be involved.
However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the U.S. pledged to consult with European partners Monday before Friday’s meeting with Putin. He added that maintaining the integrity of Ukraine’s territory is “not just a matter of solidarity with our neighbor, but also our own security.”
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told German media that Berlin was working closely with Washington to ensure Zelenskyy’s attendance at the talks. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, echoed that sentiment, saying that “any deal between the U.S. and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security.”
Friday’s talks come after more than a dozen people were killed and injured in new Russian missile and drone strikes across Ukraine since Sunday, prompting Kyiv to launch deadly drone strikes of its own in Russia.
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