Zelensky demands a seat at the negotiating table and warns that he will not accept a "bilateral" agreement between Trump and Putin

BrusselsEuropean leaders wanted to avoid exactly what is already happening: being left out of the resolution of the war in Ukraine. The European Union has been one of the allies that has sent the most aid to Ukrainian troops during these three years of war and will play a key role in guaranteeing a potential agreement between Kiev and Moscow, as well as in the reconstruction of the Ukrainian country. However, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday – apparently without warning Volodymyr Zelensky or the European leaders – that he had agreed by telephone with Vladimir Putin that negotiations begin "immediately".

Following this announcement by the US president, alarm bells have gone off in Brussels and Kiev. Volodymyr Zelensky himself has made it clear that he does not intend to accept any kind of understanding without the participation and approval of the Ukrainians. "I am making it very clear to our partners: any bilateral negotiations on Ukraine, [...] we will not accept them," said the Ukrainian president in statements to the media from the Ukrainian region of Khmelnitsky.

In the same vein as Ukraine, the defence ministers of the NATO allies have claimed at the summit held on Thursday the decisive role of the European Union in the conflict, and have agreed that no kind of understanding can be reached on the war in Ukraine leaving them on the sidelines. In fact, this is Putin's wish: that neither the EU nor Kiev have anything to say and he can close an agreement with Trump, with whom has always maintained a good relationship.

The toughest partner of the Atlantic Alliance has been Germany, which is one of the European countries with the greatest Atlanticist tradition. "It is clear that we must be at the negotiating table," stressed the German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, at the entrance of the meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels. Major allies such as the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the European Union as a whole have expressed the same opinion. "There will be no credible and successful negotiations without Ukraine and the EU," tweeted the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

However, Pistorius's criticism did not end there, and he censured the speech this Wednesday in Brussels by the US Secretary of State for Defence, Pete Hegseth, who for the first time outlined unambiguously and publicly what the US military's objectives are. The pillars of the Trump administration's positioning on Ukraine. Among other things, he ruled out a Ukraine's possible accession to NATO and almost gave up Crimea and part of eastern Ukraine, which Russian troops had already occupied in 2014. According to the head of the Pentagon, this is the only way to achieve peace and stop "prolonging the war and causing even more suffering."

In the face of these statements, the German defense minister was unable to attend and strongly criticized the fact that the United States is already giving in on some of Putin's maximum conditions before starting to negotiate. "It would have been better to first talk at the negotiating table about Ukraine's possible accession to NATO or possible territorial losses," said Pistorius, who also warned of the danger of giving up territories to Russia. "It would be naive to think that the threat [of Russian expansionism] will stop," he added.

NATO wants Zelensky at the table

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did not at any point defend that Europe should sit in on potential negotiations, but on Thursday he did point out that Zelensky should have a reserved seat. "Ukraine must participate in everything that has to do with Ukraine," insisted the leader of the largest military entity in the world. In fact, this is still what, a priori, seems to be Washington's official position and on Wednesday, although apparently he had not warned him beforehand, Trump called the Ukrainian president to personally announce the agreement he had reached with Putin.

Now, it remains to be seen to what extent Ukraine can really say its position in front of Russia. Rutte, which is fully aligned with the Pentagon, never tires of repeating that NATO must ensure that Kiev comes to the negotiating table in a strong manner, but the New York magnate's moves only serve to weaken it. Trump has been threatening Zelensky for weeks with withdrawing his arms and financial support, and on Tuesday he said that "Ukraine could one day be Russian" If Ukraine does not agree to a deal, it is leaving Europe out of the conflict and is already ceding territory to Putin before the talks even begin. And, of course, the weaker Ukraine comes into the negotiations, the more it will be forced to cave in to the United States and Russia.