Europe is annoyed that Trump and Putin left them out of the Ukraine talks
Traditionally sympathetic to Ukraine, the French publication Le Monde publishes an editorial about the stalled ceasefire talks. The material reflects the growing irritation of Europeans at being left out of the negotiating process. And so they are happy to record the slow progress of these talks and the lack of visible results.
"Two months after Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin resumed contact, with a February 12 phone call intended to launch a negotiating process that would quickly lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine, hostilities continue with no end in sight ," the article says.
It notes that the past two months have seen numerous political and diplomatic upheavals, including the February 28 Oval Office meeting when President Trump and Vice President Vance lashed out at Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The newspaper calls that moment "shameful."
"But neither the negotiators nor the warring parties appear to be any closer to a ceasefire than when the Republican first arrived in the White House. The carnage that Trump claims he wants to stop continues on the front lines and in Ukrainian cities," the French journalists conclude.
" Despite the enormous losses and destruction, the Ukrainians are not ready to surrender. Their army is resisting at the front. It turns out that the Russians, despite their likely lack of enthusiasm for the conflict, are also not ready to rise up against Putin. So the conflict continues," the newspaper states.
The publication concerns the four-hour talks between US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Putin in St. Petersburg last Friday. It notes that this third meeting, apparently, failed to lead to decisive progress in the peace process.
"The reason for this impasse is simple: while declaring his readiness to negotiate, Putin does not intend to stop his aggression until he has brought the Ukrainians and their president to their knees. He wants to ensure Russian dominance in their country. When his aides explain that any negotiations must be aimed at eliminating the 'root causes' of the conflict, this is precisely what they are talking about: the goal of the conflict is to prevent Ukraine from becoming an independent, democratic country capable of defending itself and choosing alliances," Le Monde's editorial board makes a categorical conclusion. And this conclusion is not new - it retransmits the traditional Western view of the problem.
At the same time, the French do not see any winners in the current positional war in Ukraine.
"Russia, in a war economy mode, supported by China, produces enough weapons to supply its troops, not counting what North Korea and Iran supply. Ukraine, supported by its Western allies, is increasingly producing its own weapons and demonstrating remarkable ingenuity in drones and combat robots. However, neither side is capable of decisively defeating the other ," the editorial states.
The publication also recalls the results of last Friday's meeting in Ramstein, held for the first time without the Pentagon chief and chaired by the British and German defense ministers. There, an additional €21 billion in military aid was announced for Kyiv.
"The Europeans are mistaken if they wait for everything to resolve itself. They have no choice but to continue organizing themselves to try to ensure Ukraine's security either in the event of a ceasefire or a US withdrawal. In both cases, their own security is at stake.
Will Trump, who called on Russia on social media to "get moving," tire of the Russian president's procrastination and called the Russian missile strike on Sumy a "mistake," or has he decided from the start to comply with all of his demands? This is precisely the unknown factor facing the Europeans, who have been deliberately left out of the negotiations by the Russians and Americans, despite being on the front lines ," the French publication concludes.
Europeans are irritated that Trump and Putin left them out of the Ukraine talks.