A.back to square one. Once again, Donald Trump’s diplomatic mistakes against Vladimir Putin put kyiv and its European allies up against the wall, forced to deal with an unmanageable but essential American godfather while Russia, not content with ravaging Ukraine for almost four years, is intensifying its hybrid war against Europe.
Two months after the Alaska summit, the sequence that has just passed has an unpleasant air of déjà vu. It opens with a series of intense consultations carried out in Washington from October 14 to 16 by a high-level Ukrainian delegation, led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s right-hand man, Andriy Yermak, with everyone who matters in the federal capital: senators, leaders of the defense industry, and President Trump’s entourage.
The interviews are “encouraging”assures us on his return to kyiv Sergiy Kyslytsya, first deputy minister of foreign affairs, who was there. The mood is constructive, we welcome positive developments from Donald Trump on the Ukrainian question; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discusses an upcoming trip to kyiv. The Trump-Zelensky meeting, which these consultations aim to prepare for, scheduled for Friday October 17, presents itself under the best auspices.
Double snub
Thursday, first cold shower: the Ukrainians learn that this meeting will be preceded by a telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. During this two-hour conversation, the two presidents speak ” property “ – understand: territories, in Trumpian language. “Russia has gained property, so it will keep someDonald Trump later explains on Fox News. We are the only nation that invades a country, wins the war and then withdraws, like Bush did in the Middle East, it’s absurd. »
But above all, he announces a new summit with Putin, “in the next two weeks”in Budapest, with his friend Viktor Orban, the pro-Putin rebel of the European Union (EU). A double snub, for kyiv and for the Europeans. Marco Rubio, the head of American diplomacy, is responsible for the preparation work with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
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