Europeans, Ukraine steer Trump away from Putin’s view after summit

BRUSSELS — European leaders are returning on Tuesday from a damage control mission to the White House relieved to have talked President Donald Trump down from pressuring Ukraine into accepting Russian demands, and to have received promises of a U.S. role in securing a peace deal.

With a mix of pushback and flattery, the Europeans flanking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemed to wean Trump off the idea of immediate concessions of Ukrainian land promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he sat down with Trump in Alaska.

But as they put the onus back on Putin, European officials also warned the road to any settlement seems long, and they acknowledged they still have much to hammer out with the administration about what the U.S. role might look like.

The conversation picking up with Washington about security guarantees sets them on a potential collision course with the Kremlin in talks and already appears to be triggering unease in Moscow, which repeated objections to any role in Ukraine for forces from NATO countries.

Depending on how it shapes up, a U.S. and European plan to give Ukraine security guarantees could put Putin in a precarious position: Any role of NATO countries in bolstering Ukraine counters exactly what the Kremlin has fought during more than three years of its war in Ukraine.

Already, differences were evident as Trump and European leaders said they would push for a summit soon between Zelenskyy and Putin, followed by a trilateral one with Trump. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expected it to happen “within two weeks.”

Right after the Alaska meeting, however, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the two leaders had agreed only to “explore the possibility” of raising the level of officials involved in talks on Ukraine, putting a distinct dampener on any prospects for a meeting between the leaders soon.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday further played down expectations of a summit by saying that “any contacts involving the heads of state need to be thoroughly prepared.”

Since Trump took office, much of the diplomatic dance has involved all sides maneuvering to avoid drawing his ire and to cast the other party as the barrier to Trump’s ambition for a peace deal.

In their White House trip, Zelenskyy and his entourage of some of Europe’s most powerful leaders managed again to bring Trump back onside — for now.

Ukraine’s chief European backers still diverged on some points with Trump, including on calls for a ceasefire during negotiations, and were acutely aware there’s still room for Trump to veer off their course again.

Emerging from the White House, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters the European leaders got answers from Washington “which were not as clear, I must say, a few days or weeks ago.”

Chief among them was an “American commitment to work with us on security guarantees,” he said. “We have progressed but I will still be very prudent because all of this is highly complex, full of details, and we will have to work on the substance.”

Macron struck a note of caution about the path forward. “It is a step,” he said. “We are very far from declaring victory.”

The leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO all dropped their plans to rush to the White House on Monday, alarmed by Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska, as Russian commentators pushed the idea of driving a wedge between the U.S. and the Europeans.

In Kyiv, there were sighs of relief on Tuesday because of the apparent positive outcome and also because Zelenskyy avoided the likes of the Oval Office showdown from his last visit to the White House.

“It is indeed a great progress what Trump said about the possibility that America can join or take part in the European guarantees of security for Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament foreign affairs committee.

A Ukrainian official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, however, cautioned that Russia could still seek to drag out the process while deflecting pressure.

“They consider this process a tactical advantage,” the official said. “They believe negotiations are important as long as they can help postpone the sanctions and additional military assistance to Ukraine. … They understand that at least for 2025 it is getting more and more difficult to change anything.”

Russian commentators and nationalist military bloggers expressed doubts after Monday’s meeting that Moscow’s key conditions — such as restricting Ukraine’s military — would be met through diplomacy. Putin was now left with the choice of continuing the grinding war to slowly gain more territory in eastern Ukraine or making a deal that falls well short of his goals for the 2022 invasion, they wrote.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that despite Trump’s expectations, the Kremlin’s response suggested that Putin was still highly resistant to a meeting with Zelenskyy soon.

“He has repeatedly stated that such a meeting would only be possible if there were well-prepared grounds, which in practice means Zelenskyy’s acceptance of Russia’s terms for ending the war,” Stanovaya said in a post on X. “Another disappointment for Trump is therefore inevitable.”

She also poured scorn on the idea that Western allies could provide adequate security guarantees for Ukraine. “The very notion of the dominant side on the battlefield agreeing to guarantees of nonaggression toward its adversary is internally contradictory,” she said.

European officials say security guarantees, from them and Washington, will be key to any settlement to give Kyiv protection from future attacks and to give Zelenskyy a means to gain domestic acceptance for a deal with Russia.

Kyiv’s European partners — wary of an emboldened Russia in their neighborhood — hailed Trump’s openness to getting involved but offered few specifics. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described it as a “breakthrough.”

Trump said the United States would be “involved” in keeping peace in Ukraine after any deal with Russia, but offered few specifics on the possible role of U.S. forces. Trump later said on Truth Social that European allies would provide the guarantees, with “coordination” with the United States.

Led by France and Britain, a coalition of Ukraine’s allies has explored ways to support the country in a future deal, including with weapons and military training, air and sea power, and some troops away from the front line. The proposals draw on U.S. backing with key capabilities such as intelligence, satellite surveillance or air power.

European and U.S. officials have also put forth guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5 on collective mutual defense — that an attack on one is an attack on all. The idea has faced some skepticism from some European leaders, such as Macron, who noted that promises of coming to Ukraine’s defense if it is attacked have failed to protect it in the past.

Germany’s Merz told reporters after the meeting that the U.S. would provide “very good protection.” Still, he conceded that negotiations on ending the war would now become more complicated.

— — -

Belton reported from London, Dixon from Riga, Latvia, and Stern from Kyiv. Anastacia Galouchka in Kyiv and Beatriz Rios in Brussels contributed to this report.