European leaders who converged on the White House for talks on the Russia-Ukraine war demonstrated a united front regarding Ukraine’s security on Monday, underscoring the issue as pivotal for the entire continent, not just Ukraine.
As they emerged from talks in the White House, European leaders expressed guarded optimism that US President Donald Trump could be finding momentum in his quest to fulfil his campaign promise of ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The leaders of France, Germany, Finland, Italy and the UK, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO chief Mark Rutte showed a united front in the talks with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said after the meeting that there was “real progress” and a “real sense of unity.”
European publics and pundits have declared Vladimir Putin the winner, and poured scorn on Trump’s kowtowing and conspicuous lack of success; some politicians have joined in. Britons might think their government craven for seeing the meeting as the start of a promising initiative, but that’s really the only sensible diplomatic take. The most promising result of the Anchorage summit was Trump’s conclusion that aiming for a ceasefire was not good enough; we need to move smartly to a full agreement. The Europeans could signal their willingness to play a full part in implementing such an agreement. That role, above everything else, will be providing concrete security guarantees. Putin is highly likely to reject that. But what if the comprehensive agreement also had something important for him? Putin’s two key territorial requirements are the land bridge to Crimea and the whole of Donbas. He has the first but not the second. Ukraine would hate giving up land that Russia has never conquered. But the aim here is peace, and peace always requires concessions. Ukraine has, of course, a great interest in ending the fighting. It wants to do that – with honour – and it wants no resumption. The precedent is the winter war of 1939-40. At the outset, Finland looked completely outgunned by the Soviet Union. But, like the Ukrainians, they fought bravely. Like the Ukrainians, they did much better than any outsider predicted. But in the end, they ceded more land than the Soviets were occupying in order to make peace – 11% of their territory, including Karelia (inspiration for their national composer’s most famous piece of music). In 1940, Finland had reason to fear that the Soviets would be back for more. Operation Barbarossa came to their rescue one year later, when the Soviet Union was the target of the biggest land invasion in history. In 2025, Ukraine needs something more immediate. Membership of Nato is the most obvious “something”.