It is fair to say that Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy라이브 바카라 visit to the White House ended disastrously. He was there to ink a minerals deal that U.S. President Donald Trump was demanding as compensation for the assumed $350 billion of US aid to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. But what ensued was an unprecedented and diplomatically shocking spat involving Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vice-President J D Vance before the gathered journalists at the White House.
The Ukrainian side was no doubt aware of Trump's lack of empathy for Zelenskyy. Before the presidential election, Trump had called Zelenskyy a super salesman who, each time he visited the US, came away with billions of dollars in aid. After becoming president he called Zelenskyy a dictator, spoke about his abysmally low public ratings (4%), and the need for fresh elections in Ukraine.
Trump has--during his election campaign and after becoming president--expressed his intention to reach out to Russian president Vladimir Putin and work towards ending the conflict in Ukraine, which he sees as wasteful in terms of lives and money and threatening WW 3. Putin, according to him, was also ready to do a deal to end the conflict.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in his Senate confirmation hearings, had also emphasised the need to end this conflict as Ukraine was running out of manpower to continue the war. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, at the Munich Security Conference last month, also spoke about the US intention to talk directly to Russia to end the conflict without involving Europe, since Europe had failed to find a solution in three years.
The US also does not see the need to involve Ukraine at this stage. According to them, Ukraine could come to the table after US and Russia have reset the basics of their relations. For Russia, the renewed contact with US has broader objectives and is not limited to a deal on ending the Ukraine conflict.
Russia had presented proposals on European security in December 2021 to the US to ward off a conflict over Ukraine, which the US apparently rejected. The concept of equal and indivisible security in Europe that Russia espouses has to settled, in its view, primarily with the US as the leader of the transatlantic alliance. Europe not being an independent actor and relying on US protection means that Russia sees a solution to its concerns about Ukraine being brought into NATO라이브 바카라 orbit lying in a Russia-US dialogue in the first place, and not one with Europe, with the experience of Minsk 1 and 2 and the Normandy format in mind. This would explain why with Trump in power both sides agree to exclude third parties, be it Europe or Ukraine, from their own initial reset negotiations. US and Russian delegations have already met two times, with seemingly positive results.
Both the Europeans and Ukraine have strongly objected to their exclusion from the US-Russia negotiations. The leaders of France, the UK and Poland have visited Washington D.C.to lobby for their inclusion in the peace efforts and oppose any decision taken behind Ukraine라이브 바카라 back.
Zelenskyy has been excessively lionised by the previous US administration, an array of European leaders and the western media all these years. This seems to have given him supreme confidence in aggressively pushing his case internationally, to the point of demanding support as a matter of right, arguing that Ukraine was fighting not only for itself but for the security of Europe and for freedom and democracy everywhere.
He seems to have developed an inordinate sense of entitlement, leading him to be rude in the past to his benefactors, including Biden, Macron, Scholz, the previous Polish prime minister, an erstwhile UK Defence Secretary, and Prime Minister Modi, too, when during his visit to Ukraine he chided India for buying Russian oil and insisted on India first signing the Swiss communiqué on Zelensky라이브 바카라 peace plan if it wished to play any role.
This personality flaw would explain Zelensky라이브 바카라 performance at the White House meeting with Trump. Despite knowing that Trump believed he can do business with Putin and that a ceasefire could be part of a wider peace deal, Zelensky chose to question Trump라이브 바카라 assumptions by calling Putin a killer and a terrorist and rejected any possible ceasefire alleging that Putin had already violated ceasefires 25 times. He got into a tactless argument with Vice-President Vance over the need to resort to diplomacy to resolve the conflict, to the point of warning that if Russia had brought war to Ukraine today, the US should not feel secure simply because there was an ocean separating it from Europe. It is this provocation that unleashed a furious response from Trump, with an undeterred Zelensky still trying to be disputatious.
On his stopover in London after the White House fiasco, European leaders, in a rebuff to Trump, treated Zelensky as a wronged hero of sorts and offered him their support with funds, weapons, and their own security guarantees post a peace deal that would involve British and French troops on the ground along with air cover. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer chose to boost Zelensky라이브 바카라 political status by arranging a call on King Charles by him.
The London conclave라이브 바카라 message was that Zelensky was a politically viable leader who would be supported no matter what Trump and his team thought of him. This has exposed the growing gap between the Trump administration and Europe on the Ukraine issue. This fresh lionisation immediately emboldened Zelensky to re-affirm his determination to continue the conflict, seek more weapons and financial support, reject any ceasefire unless he obtained security guarantees, and project himself as the legitimate and popular leader of Ukraine.
Whether Zelensky라이브 바카라 days are numbered or not remains to be seen. Trump has hinted that Zelensky cannot stay in power. He has cut off all arms supplies to Ukraine for the time being as a pressure tactic. Whether Europe can, beyond rhetoric, assume the burden of supporting Ukraine militarily and financially without US support is moot. To salvage his untenable position, Zelensky, without apologising, has regretted the contretemps at the White House, expressed his willingness to explore a ceasefire and engage in peace negotiations under Trump라이브 바카라 leadership, and sign the minerals agreement. But he still seeks solid security guarantees (US or NATO), and remains sceptical of results. He has played to Trump라이브 바카라 ego, with the latter mentioning with satisfaction Zelensky라이브 바카라 conciliatory letter to him in his State of the Union address. Zelensky accepted a little humiliation as a small price for survival.
Europe seeks to put a spanner in Trump라이브 바카라 plans for a peace deal with Russia on Ukraine. Its leaders will find it difficult to walk back from the robust pro-Zelensky position taken at the London meeting. This can have repercussions on the NATO alliance about which Trump already is agnostic. This can also complicate Trump라이브 바카라 plans to end the conflict.
Russia no doubt views positively the breach between the US and Zelensky. Its strategy will be to lock in Trump into a process that leaves enough room to pursue and secure its fundamental security interests, keeping in mind Trump라이브 바카라 mercurial nature and knowing that he has vital cards to play but does not possess all of them. This is the conundrum for Russia.
(Kanwal Sibal is the former Foreign Secretary and former Ambassador to Russia)
