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It's been a puzzling week.
The Monday gathering of European leaders and Ukraine’s president with Donald Trump at the White House was highly significant.
Ukraine latest: Trump changes tack
The leaders went home consoled in the knowledge that they’d indeed convinced the American president not to abandon Europe, and he had committed to provide American “security guarantees” to Ukraine.
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<span class="ui-media-caption__caption-text" data-role="caption-text" data-testid="sitewide-video-caption">European leaders sit down with Trump for talks</span>
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The details were vague and sketched out only a little more through the week – we heard some noise about American air cover – but regardless, the presidential commitment represented a clear shift from months of isolationist rhetoric on Ukraine – “it’s Europe’s problem” and all the rest of it.
Yet it was always the case that, beyond that clear achievement for the Europeans, Russia would have a problem with it.
Trump’s envoy’s language last weekend – claiming that Putin had agreed to Europe providing “Article 5-like” guarantees for Ukraine, essentially providing it with a NATO-like collective security blanket – was baffling.
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<span class="ui-media-caption__caption-text" data-role="caption-text" data-testid="sitewide-video-caption">Trump: No US troops on ground in Ukraine</span>
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Russia gives two fingers to the president
And throughout this week, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly and predictably undermined the whole thing, declaring that Russia would never accept any peace plan that involved any European or NATO troops in Ukraine.
“The presence of foreign troops in Ukraine is utterly inadmissible for Russia,” he said yesterday, echoing similar statements stretching back years.
Remember that NATO’s “eastern encroachment” was the justification for Russia’s “special military operation” – the invasion of Ukraine – in the first place. All this suggests that Trump is feeble.
It’s two fingers to the American president, though Russia carefully calibrates its language, mocking European leaders instead. That choice is telling.
Read more on Ukraine:
Source: https://news.sky.com/story/its-been-a-confusing-week-and-trumps-been-made-to-look-weak-13415929
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