No NATO, no Crimea for Ukraine: Trump
BBC :
Donald Trump has said the Ukrainian president can end Russia’s war “if he wants to”, but there will be “no going into Nato by Ukraine” as part of a peace deal.
Hours before he was due to host Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, Trump also said there would be “no getting back” the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion.
Trump’s remarks follow his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska that resulted in the US president dropping a demand for a ceasefire and calling instead for a permanent peace deal.
After arriving in the US late on Sunday, Zelensky repeated his call for allies’ effective security guarantees.
A US envoy said on Sunday that Putin had agreed to a possible Nato-like security pact for Ukraine.
The Russian president has consistently opposed the idea of Ukraine joining the military alliance.
Posting on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night, Trump said: “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.
Before Trump’s return to power in January, Nato countries agreed on Kyiv’s “irreversible path” to membership in the alliance.
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, alongside European leaders including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, will join Zelensky in Washington for talks on Ukraine’s future on Monday.
Also attending are French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
It is unclear how many of them will go to the White House.
Trump later added: “Big day at the White House tomorrow.
Never had so many European Leaders at one time. My great honor to host them!!!”
Zelensky posted on social media saying he was “grateful” for Trump’s invitation. “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably”.
He also doubled down on the need for effective security guarantees from allies, “not like it was years ago… when Ukraine was given so called ‘security guarantees’ in 1994 but they didn’t work”.
“Of course, Crimea should not have been given up then,” he added. “Just as Ukrainians did not give up Kyiv, Odesa, or Kharkiv after 2022”.
Diplomatic sources say European officials are concerned that Trump may try to press Zelensky to agree to terms, after the Ukrainian leader was excluded from the Trump-Putin meeting on US soil last Friday.
Nato leaders also appear eager to avoid a repeat of Zelensky’s February trip to the Oval Office that ended abruptly after an argument with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance.
The altercation – which saw Trump accuse Zelensky of “gambling with World War Three” – left Washington-Kyiv ties in tatters.
But European leaders have been working diligently behind the scenes since then to mend the relationship.