Zelenski can still be present at a Trump-Putin meeting, but the rest of Europe is excluded

This is the bilateral summit at which every European leader wants to be.

And for reasonable reason. Donald Trump is planned on Friday Meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska Let’s discuss the end of the war in Ukraine.

Territorial discounts are likely to be discussed and Europe (not least Ukraine) does not want its boundaries to be redirected by force.

But as things are, there is no invitation to have invaded the country, nor the continent in which it sits.

“Trim on some rather outrageous Russian demands,” warns Lord Simon McDonald, a former leader of the United Kingdom.

“It will be theatrical,” he adds. “Putin will ask for things that no one else would admit – with Donald Trump’s possible exception.”

President Zelenski said he would not agree to give up any land or even freeze the conflict on current front lines.

His argument is that it will not slow down a Russian military machine that is the leading A full -scale war for more than three and a half years. The concessions, he claims, will only accelerate it.

“It is clear that Putin wants a photo with the most influential people on earth, who is President Trump, and he wants to postpone the sanctions he is likely to receive,” I tell me EU Caja Callas Foreign Policy.

“The question is what is the success for the US of the meeting?” she asks. “If President Zelenski is there, it would be a clear success.”

But if the leader of Ukraine is not on Alaska’s table, how can the Kremlin’s suggestions be challenged?

“He could go,” the US president said on this opportunity. But Kyiv and Europe want to move from “maybe” to yes.

Adding to their anxiety is the format one to one is an idea of the Kremlin The White House agreed.

The European neighborhood of Brussels is not its usual noise of political activity in August, but these negotiations in the US-Russia have changed this.

On Monday, Callas hosted a virtual meeting of foreign ministers, where they called for an unconditional cessation of fire before each deal. New sanctions were also announced for Moscow.

I asked Callas what Donald Trump thought was referring to, suggesting that some land could be exchanged.

“We have to ask President Trump,” she says. “But it is clear that the aggressor cannot be awarded for aggression. Otherwise we will just see more aggression around the world because it pays off.”

Europe is trying to do two things: rally around Ukraine, as well as muscles in this peaceful process, led by American language.

Whether Zelenski makes the trip or not, the door to Europe is firmly closed as Trump joined the office earlier this year.

At the time when his envoy to Ukraine Keith Kelloge said the block would not participate in any peace talks. This is a position that Europeans have failed to change through diplomacy.

Their relationship with the United States is still improving, not least with a significant increase in their defense costs. But Radoslaw Sikorski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, believes they need a more central role.

“It’s a matter of existential interest in European security,” he explains.

“We appreciate Trump’s efforts, but we will also make our own decision in Europe.

“A simple end of fire would not solve the problem.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz secured a remote meeting between European leaders, as well as Volodimir Zelenski and Donald Trump, this Wednesday.

They hope to be consulted by America’s plan to terminate the invasion of Russia, but former UK Foreign Affairs leader Lord McDonald will be surprised when he will see a European invitation on Friday.

“The end will be as long as the war is long,” he warned.

“The meeting is a cornerstone, but it doesn’t really mean it will lead anywhere.”