Zelensky can still attend Trump-Purven’s meeting, but the rest of Europe stops

This is a bilateral summit at which every European leader wants to be.

And for a good reason. Donald Trump is scheduled for Friday Meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska Discuss the end of the war in Ukraine.

Territorial concessions will probably be discussed, and Europe (not least Ukraine) does not want its borders to be converted through force.

But, as it stands, there are no invitations for the country to invade, and the continent is sitting.

“Subscribe for some rather flashing Russian requirements,” warns Lord Simon McDonald, former head of the UK foreign service.

“It will be theatrical,” he adds. “Putin will ask about things that no one else admits – except for Donald Trump.”

President Zelensky stated that he would disagree with the refusal of any land and not even freezing the conflict on modern advanced lines.

His argument is that it does not slow down the Russian military machine that is underway A full -scale war is more than three and a half years. Concessions, he claims, only accelerate it.

“Of course, Putin wants a photo with the most influential people on Earth, which is the president of Trump, and he wants the sanctions to be delayed, which he may receive,” Kaj Kalas, the head of EU foreign policy, tells me.

“Question is what success for the US at the meeting?” she asks. “If President Zelensky is there, it will be a clear success.”

But if the Ukrainian leader is not at the Alaska table, how can the Kremlin’s proposals be disputed?

“He could go,” the US president said. But Kyiv and Europe want it to move from “possible” to “yes.”

Adding to them anxiety, this is a one -on -one format that is the idea of the Kremlin The White House agreed.

The European quarter of Brussels is not the usual flurry of political activity in August, but these conversations in the US-Russia changed it.

A virtual meeting of foreign ministers was held in Kalas on Monday, where they called for an unconditional ceasefire before a deal. New sanctions for Moscow were also announced.

I asked Kalas that, in her opinion, Donald Trump implies, believing that some land could be replaced.

“We must ask the Trump president,” she says. “But it is clear that the aggressor cannot be rewarded for aggression. Otherwise, we will just see more aggression around the world because it pays off.”

Europe is trying to do two things: a rally around Ukraine, as well as muscles in this peace process under the guidance of Americans.

Regardless of the fact that Zelensky makes the trip, the doors for Europe remained closed firmly, because at the beginning of the year in the Trump office.

At a time when his messenger in Ukraine Keith Kealo said the block would not participate in any peace talks. This is a position that Europeans could not change through diplomacy.

Their relations with the US still have improved, not least with a significant increase in defense costs. But Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, believes that they need a more central role.

“This is a matter of existential European security interests,” he explains.

“We appreciate Trump’s efforts, but we will also make our own decision in Europe.

“A simple ceasefire will not solve the problem.”

On this Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz provided a remote seat between European leaders, as well as VolodyMyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.

They hope that they will consult on the plan of America to stop the invasion of Russia, but the former head of the Foreign Service of the UK Lord McDonald was surprised to see a European invitation on Friday.

“The end will be as protracted as the war,” he warned.

“The meeting is a milestone, but it doesn’t really mean that it will lead to anything.”