I previously gave the possibility of a summit involving President Trump, President Zelenskyy and President Putin a 5 percent chance of ever occurring, and I stand by that prediction as I view the meeting today of Zelenskyy and European leaders with Trump at the White House.
Zelenskyy appeared to adopt an appreciative, buddy-buddy approach to Trump, but President Macron of France and Chancellor Merz of Germany bore stern faces and brought sterner messages. Both wanted a ceasefire to be the goal and result of the Trump illusion of a trilateral meeting with Putin. Macron even suggested a quadrilateral meeting that would include a European representative.
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Virtually every speaker called for a security guarantee for Ukraine in any peace deal, one that would mirror Article 5 of the NATO agreement. Article 5 states that if one country in NATO is attacked, that is the equivalent of all countries being attacked.
Interestingly, only the United States — which under Trump wants as little as possible to do with NATO — is the only country to invoke Article 5, which it did following the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Throughout the day (so far at least since they’re still meeting), Trump waffled a lot, and at one point seemed committed to U.S. involvement in any security agreement with Ukraine should Putin violate any peace settlement reached.
Trump seemed adamant, however, that he would stick to Putin’s demand that there be no ceasefire. He kept pointing to the eight “peace agreements” he’s reached this year, saying that none required a ceasefire, only negotiations toward an agreement.
Anyway, not only is the ghost of Neville Chamberlain whispering in Trump’s ear — give up parts of Ukraine for the illusion of peace — but the spectre of Vladimir Putin seems looming over the shoulder of the President — “no ceasefire.”