BRUSSELS: European leaders said they would join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in talks with US President Donald Trump on Monday (Aug 18), as they try to find a way to end Russia’s offensive.
Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, but the talks failed to yield any breakthrough on a ceasefire – though White House envoy Steve Witkoff said both leaders had agreed to provide “robust security guarantees” to Ukraine.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed the news but Zelenskyy, speaking alongside her at a news conference in Brussels, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin’s thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,” he said.
Zelenskyy later said on social media that the US offer regarding security guarantees was “historic”.
MOSCOW DENOUNCES MACRON
French President Emmanuel Macron, who will take part in the Washington meeting along with von der Leyen and others, said European leaders would ask about the extent of the security guarantees offered to Ukraine in any peace agreement.
Of Moscow’s position, he said: “There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called that an “abject lie” in a statement on Telegram later Sunday.
Moscow had been proposing a “peaceful resolution” of the conflict for seven years under the terms of the Minsk Accords, she said.
Macron, she added, was trying to convince Ukraine that it could win on the battlefield even when he knew that that was “impossible”.
