Putin's major request at the Alaska summit, which Trump immediately sent to Zelenski, arouses the greatest fear of Ukraine and Europe

Without a clear strategy for the end of the war, European leaders are now worried that President Donald Trump will force Kiev to accept conditions that favor Russia too much, including the transfer of Moscow, the New York Times, Reuters and Financial Times write. In Alaska, Putin asked Donetk entirely, and Trump sent this request to Volodimir Zelenski, who refused.

Europeans and Ukrainians believe that the Alaska summit is not over with the worst scenario.

President Donald Trump did not agree for Ukraine to give up Russia pieces of territory, at least not yet, nor limit the European help to Kiev.

But that does not mean that European leaders are completely quiet.

From subsequent statements and discussions, it turned out that Trump believes that a peace treaty can be quickly concluded, as long as Ukraine accepts to give up more territory in the Donbas region.

He thus puts responsibility on the shoulders of President Volodimir Zelenski to accept this, two European officials quoted by New York Times on Saturday.

In the comments after the summit, Trump praised Vladimir Putin and noticed that Russia “is a great power” – as opposed to Ukraine.

“Now it is really dependent on President Zelenski to bring this to an end,” he added. “I would also say that the European countries must get involved a little,” the White House leader added.

It was not clear whether he wanted to say that Europeans should exert pressure on Ukraine to reach an agreement or that they should provide help and additional guarantees to Kiev.

Zelenski said on Saturday that he was talking to Trump and will meet him in Washington Monday, bending that a serious peace treaty could be concluded as quickly as the US president.

The fundamental issue of Europeans

The result of the Alaska summit reveals a fundamental problem for Europeans. They do not have their own strategy to put an end to the war, let alone to overcome Moscow, writes the American daily.

This criticism was not only formulated beyond the Atlantic. Many observers have emphasized the slowdown with which Europeans also acted the lack of a concrete plan to put an end to the war.

For Trump, the Ukraine war is an obstacle to the relationship it wants with Putin.

For Europe, things are fundamentally different, and the fate of Ukraine is of strategic importance. If Ukraine collapses, European leaders anticipate that other countries could follow and that Russia will try to test NATO in the coming years.

The observers did not escape the fact that Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived at his hotel in Alaska wearing a jacket with the inscription of the USSR.

Putin has signed nostalgia for several occasions after the Soviet Empire.

Europeans need Trump

But what is Europe's strategy? Despite the support given to Ukraine and (slow) mobilization of the defense industry, Europeans are not willing to fight against Russia for Ukraine.

Speaking to the New York Times, Anatol Lieven, at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington research institution, noted that “Europeans do not seem to have a good strategy.”

“Until this year, when Trump began this process of confused peace, they demanded things that will never happen, such as Russia's complete withdrawal from all Ukrainian territories,” added the expert.

Now, following Trump's example, they accepted that, in the foreseeable future, Russia will keep 20% of the territory of Ukraine that it has already conquered, but they want Moscow to stop at least here.

European leaders on Saturday issued a common statement after talking to Trump, praising their efforts, but without sharing the opinion that peace negotiations are preferable to a quick armistice.

“Europeans know Trump's unpredictability, his lack of sympathy for Europe and Ukraine and his strange affection for Putin,” said Michael C. Kimmage, a history professor at the Catholic University of America and author of the book “Collisions”, about the origins of the Ukraine war.

But they need Trump, the teacher said.

Putin's request

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed a note of optimism, claiming that the United States is ready to participate in the security of Ukraine, writes Reuters.

“The good news is that America is ready to participate in such security guarantees and does not leave this task only to Europeans,” Merz said for the German public post, after discussions with Trump.

“If this works, it will be more valuable than an armistice,” he said.

Merz said that Trump indicated that Russia seems willing to negotiate based on the lines of the conflict, rather than on the borders of the Ukrainian regions they claim.

“This is a huge difference, because Russia claims the territories that it hasn't occupied yet,” he said.

However, other sources indicated that Putin did not give up the claim of the whole Donbas.

The Financial Times wrote that the Kremlin leader would have asked Ukraine to withdraw from Donets, offering instead to freeze the lines of the front in Herson and Zaporojie.

Zelenski repeatedly said that this request cannot be fulfilled, because it would mean abandoning strongly fortified positions, which would provide Russia with a huge advantage in a possible future offensive.

Trump sent him immediately after Zelenski's summit, Putin's request, and the Ukrainian president rejected it.

Isolation of Russia

Europeans are making efforts to apply the old strategy of the Cold War, modernized: long -term isolation, including Russia's economic isolation.

In the short term, however, a lot depends on the help given to Ukraine, which lacks troops and has the morale declining, to build a defensive line capable of stopping Russia's constant advance.

This, combined with the economic and political pressure that only the United States can exercise, could convince Putin that he has obtained everything he could and that it is time to put an end to the war.

But the effort is more difficult now, given that Trump is supporting his support for Putin's speech and does not show that he would exert pressure on him, despite the occasional threats in this regard.

For his part, as he did again in Alaska, Putin continues to ask for the “deep causes of the conflict” – which, in his opinion, are about invading the sphere of Russia by NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The only viable way to success for Ukraine

For Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Center of Carnegie Russia Eurasia, now in Berlin, the only viable way for success to Ukraine is that Russia itself starts to remain without soldiers.

“Ukraine can slowly negotiate the territory to continue to lose weight, but that will take another year or two,” he told the New York Times – as long as Washington continues to share operational information and Ukraine does not collapse from the inside.

Even an extended armistice, as in Korea or Cyprus, would be better for the rest of Ukraine than an unfavorable agreement, said Gabuev.

“Thus, a sovereign and independent Ukraine could have an inception in the West, but not in NATO or in the European Union, without Veto from Russia,” he said.

But for this to happen, Gabuev stressed, Europe must increase the economic pressure on Russia and continue to provide Ukraine with large amounts of weapons. And, he said, to keep Trump on his side.