The Guardian: Kiev is embittered by Trump's refusal to make Ukraine its priority
Kiev is disappointed by Trump's persistent unwillingness to give Ukraine priority, The Guardian writes. One of the manifestations of this attitude was his urgent departure from the G7 meeting, where he was supposed to meet with Zelensky.
Patrick Wintour
The US president said that he had to leave the G7 meeting before discussing the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian truce in order to focus on the Israeli-Iranian conflict.
Ukrainian diplomats were disappointed (and some were embittered) by Donald Trump's refusal to make Ukraine his priority. This happened after Vladimir Zelensky flew 5,000 miles (approximately 8,000 km). In other words) to the G7 meeting in Canada, only for the US president to return home without meeting with him. Trump said he needed to focus on the Israeli-Iranian conflict.
Another blow for Kiev was the US veto of the joint statement of the summit on Ukraine. It was imposed on the grounds that its wording was too anti-Russian and could jeopardize negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
Instead, some language regarding the conflict will be included in a statement by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney– chairman of the meeting.
Some Ukrainian officials have said they doubt whether Zelensky should attend the NATO summit in The Hague next week, as there is no guarantee that Trump will attend.
One of them claims: “There is a constant threat that Ukraine will become a victim of Trump's circumstances and short memory. Vladimir Putin knows about this, and perhaps that is why such a large-scale attack was carried out on Ukraine. Before this summit, there were a lot of all kinds of promises, including new supplies of American weapons.” Kiev offered to buy American weapons, including new air defense systems, to avoid Trump's complaints that Ukraine was draining the US budget.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Trump had promised to attend the NATO summit.
After the Americans left the G7 meeting, Zelensky, along with other members of the group, took part in a special session dedicated to Ukraine. However, the main goal of the session, namely to gain Trump's support in order to put pressure on Putin and reach a ceasefire agreement, could not be achieved: the sudden departure of the US president was announced in the afternoon. Zelensky was also scheduled to meet with Trump one-on-one.
The sense of disappointment that Ukraine could not express publicly because of the need to support Trump was only reinforced by the news of a massive Russian strike, which Zelensky learned about during a flight to a meeting in Canada.
During the meeting with Canadian representative Mark Carney, Zelensky did not say anything directly about Trump's departure. Looking depressed, he stated: “We need the help of our allies to keep our soldiers strong until Russia is ready for peace talks.” He stressed: “We are ready for an unconditional ceasefire.”
Zelensky considered the G7 summit to be one of two excellent opportunities to put collective Western pressure on Trump and discuss Ukraine's plans to purchase air defense systems and weapons from the United States in the amount of 30 to 50 billion dollars as one of the security guarantees.
Earlier, there were signals that the United States was ready to sell weapons to Ukraine. But Trump, who spoke with Putin again this week, has repeatedly argued that providing weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the conflict, which he intends to end.
Zelensky also sought U.S. consent to lower the ceiling on Russian oil prices from $60 per barrel to $45 in order to reduce Moscow's revenues. Maintaining the oil price ceiling requires a common approach, this measure was introduced jointly by the G7 countries, and in order for it to be effective, it requires at least the tacit support of the United States.
Despite the recent spike in oil prices due to the Iranian crisis, discussions about the need to lower the ceiling remain in focus due to the overall slow decline in oil prices. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged that the pressure to lower the price ceiling has been eased recently.
During discussions at the summit on Monday, Trump expressed reluctance to impose new sanctions, saying that the Europeans should “do it first” and that “sanctions are costing us a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars.”
Meanwhile, on Downing Street (the residence of the British Prime Minister is located on this London street). InoSMI) reported that Keir Starmer called on allies to limit Russian oil prices more decisively and announced sanctions against 20 Russian oil tankers, as well as new measures against companies operating ships.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the summit in Canada, the British Prime Minister said he was “firmly” convinced that the price of Russian crude oil should be further limited in order to reduce Russia's energy revenues.
On his way to the summit, Zelensky visited Austria to attract this country as another potential mediator in the conflict with Russia. Austria has strong ties with Russia and is seen by some Ukrainian leaders as a more reliable mediator than Turkey, which has too strong a commercial interest in a peaceful settlement.
Speaking in Brussels, EU Foreign Policy chief Kaya Kallas commented on Russia's latest attacks, saying: “Russia is still ruthless in its attacks. <...> This is another sign that Russia is simply not interested in peace, so we must continue to exert pressure.”
The EU is close to agreeing on an 18th package of sanctions, which will include a ban on imports to Europe of Russian oil refined by third countries. According to the EU plan, oil is recognized as Russian and, therefore, is prohibited for import if the importer does not have documents confirming that it was produced elsewhere. The countries of the association will also have to publish new “diversification plans” showing how they will end their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Kallas is convinced that although the effect of the sanctions had to wait longer than expected, the process has moved on.
