European leaders scrambled on Thursday to try to get a seat at the table in Ukraine peace talks after US President Donald Trump announced the start of negotiations after speaking directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.
Trump’s move sent shockwaves through European capitals, which want a central role in peace talks because any settlement in Ukraine, hit by a full-scale Russian invasion three years ago, will have ramifications for their own security.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that the Ukraine conflict must not end with an “dictated peace”.
”The next task is to ensure that there is no dictated peace,” Scholz said in an interview with Politico. […]
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Thursday warned that NATO faces a moment of reckoning as the US and Russia set in motion negotiations to end the Ukraine war.
”It’s a crucial moment of truth,” said Lecornu. ”People call it the most important, the strongest military alliance in history. That’s historically true – but the question is, will it still be true 10 or 15 years from now.”
His German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, said it was ”regrettable” that the Trump’s administration had made ”concessions” to Russia before peace talks on Ukraine had even started. Läs artikel