There shall be no crimson carpet or fly previous, no spherical of applause when Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Washington DC on Monday.
However the bitter reminiscence of his final go to to the White Home will characteristic prominently within the Ukrainian president’s ideas.
In February, he was mocked for not carrying a go well with and informed he did not “have the cards” by US President Donald Trump, earlier than being walked off the premises early, like an unruly patron being thrown out of the bar.
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Blow-by-blow: Inside Zelenskyy and Trump’s February conflict
Zelenskyy is aware of he’s risking one other ambush within the Oval Workplace however has to current himself as a prepared participant in peace talks, out of concern of being painted because the impediment to a decision.
There was initially measured optimism in Kyiv after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a result of it appeared that no deal had been lower between Washington and the Kremlin with out Ukraine within the room, as had been feared.
However that restrained positivity rapidly evaporated with the discharge of an announcement by Trump the morning after the night time earlier than.
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Pic: AP
Within the heady heights of a gathering with strongman Putin, he appeared to have deserted the one key factor that European leaders had impressed upon him – that there needed to be an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine as an absolute place to begin to a everlasting decision.
Trump had apparently reached the conclusion that no ceasefire was required. “The best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine… is to go directly to a peace agreement,” is how he put it on his Fact Social media account.
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23:24
Trump-Putin summit – The Debrief
That despatched shockwaves by Kyiv.
Many there and elsewhere imagine Russia has no intention of stopping the struggle but, and can use its army benefit on the battlefield to strain Ukraine in drawn-out negotiations to surrender extra territory.
Within the meantime, the slaughter of Ukrainians will proceed.
It’s the most dramatic of 180s from Trump, who earlier than the assembly and after lobbying from European leaders had mentioned he wouldn’t be glad if Putin didn’t conform to a ceasefire, and even promised “severe consequences”.
But now experiences recommend Trump is giving credence to the Russian place – in a cellphone name to Zelenskyy he laid out Putin’s proposal that Ukraine relinquishes much more territory, in return for an finish to the struggle.
The Ukrainian president can have, little doubt, been distressed to see the photographs of Putin being greeted like a king on an American army base in Alaska. It’s in direct distinction to how he was hosted on US soil.
In Trump’s orbit all the pieces is a character contest, and the place he has very apparent deference to Putin, he has disdain for Zelenskyy. That makes the Ukrainian’s place very tough.
