European leaders make last-ditch appeal to Trump

The Leaders of several European countries and the EU held a ‘constructive’ meeting with Donald Trump on the 13th August, as reported by The National via Reuters. This comes ahead of Trump’s scheduled summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15th, where discussions are expected to focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine.

With the Russian military in Ukraine posing a severe geopolitical threat to the European Union, Europe is eager to show a united front to help avoid a bad outcome for Ukraine from a meeting between Mr Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. The European leaders emphasised the importance of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity in any peace negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said afterwards that he told Trump during the meeting that Putin was ‘bluffing’, claiming that Putin was bluffing to ‘push along the whole front’ in a joint press conference with German leader Friedrich Merz, telling reporters that Putin ‘does not care about the sanctions’.

Sanctions on Russia have had mixed effects, with some European officials arguing that they have slowed Moscow’s military momentum, while others acknowledge that they have not fully deterred Russian advances in eastern Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy further reiterated that sanctions have been ‘very effective’ and have been ‘hurting the Russian military economy.

Chancellor Merz described the meeting as ‘constructive’, while the European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that ‘Europe, the US and NATO have strengthened the common ground for Ukraine’.

After the call, the French President Macron addressed European concerns over comments by Trump in which he said that any deal would involve some ‘swapping of territories’. It is unclear what territories Putin might be expected to surrender.

‘There are no serious territorial exchange schemes on the table,’ said French President Emmanuel Macron, with ‘no substantial discussion at any level occurring on territorial swaps’.

The EU and Ukraine are wary that President Putin, who has tried to leverage Russia’s energy hegemony to try and intimidate the EU, may try to secure favourable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal. With any secession of Ukrainian territory veering the EU ever closer to Russia, the EU’s overarching fear is that Mr Putin will set his sights on them next if he wins in Ukraine, a fear made worse by the continued airstrikes that Ukraine has been subject to.

The National, Reuters, Maghrebi.org