Zelensky announces first trilateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia and the US

WashingtonUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced a first trilateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. Zelensky made the announcement in Davos after meeting with Donald Trump for just under an hour. According to the Ukrainian president, the meeting will take place this Friday and Saturday in the United Arab Emirates and will be attended by both diplomats and military officials. Neither Moscow nor Washington has yet confirmed the three-way negotiations, although on Thursday, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff also traveled to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin. Very little information has emerged from the meeting between Trump and Zelensky since its conclusion. Although the president described it as "a good meeting," it is unclear whether any progress was made in the peace talks, including discussions on a post-war recovery plan. With the meeting now over and Trump departing from the World Economic Forum, the signing of a draft agreement for Ukraine's post-war economic recovery seems unlikely. This would be a setback for the Ukrainians, who have long tried to keep Trump involved in the peace talks by highlighting the business opportunities for the United States in Ukraine. In the context of the meeting with Trump and near the fourth anniversary of the war, Zelensky also criticized Europe, calling it a "fragmented kaleidoscope of small and medium-sized powers" that lacks the courage to act decisively. "Europe loves to debate the future, but avoids acting today, which defines the kind of future we will have. This is the problem," said the Ukrainian president, who, despite the harsh words, also thanked Europe for its support. Zelensky praised the EU's decision to indefinitely freeze Russian funds, but still believes that more decisiveness is needed from the bloc. "Let me be clear, Europe must do more. European sanctions must block our enemies as effectively as American ones," the Ukrainian stressed. In an indirect compliment to Trump, he also criticized the Europeans, saying that if it weren't for the US president, they still wouldn't have raised their military spending targets to 5% of GDP.

Zelensky's balancing act

Zelensky's statements in Davos this Thursday represent a clear balancing act between Washington and Brussels. The Ukrainian leader has long known that he cannot count on Trump; he needs to maintain at least a minimally positive relationship for negotiations with Russia. But, on the other hand, his main support comes from a militarily under-resourced Europe, which he wants to spur into greater engagement. This is the same demand he made in September in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly: "There are no guarantees of safety other than friends and guns." Along the same lines, this Thursday he called for the creation of a unified Ukrainian armed forces and the use of frozen Russian financial assets to support Ukraine.

The situation in Ukraine has worsened in the last year: Russia has managed to make slow progress on the front while Kyiv is striving to continue swelling its ranks of soldiers. The new Ukrainian Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, acknowledged last week that the biggest challenge is mobilizing the two million men of service age who are in hiding to avoid conscription. As the minister explained in Parliament, desertions have already reached 200,000 soldiers, 20% of the troops. This is double the number of cases a year ago.

In addition to the military crisis, there is also the energy crisis. Moscow has destroyed a large part of the electrical grid, and Ukrainians are spending a winter with temperatures around -15 degrees Celsius without electricity or heating.