“I won’t go to Moscow, Putin is in Kiev.” Volodymyr Zelensky relaunches the ball of the organization of a meeting in the field of the Kremlin, the one between the Tsar and the Ukrainian president, who at the moment is not even seen on the horizon. The push of the top of August 15th in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, if ever there has been, seems to have quickly evaporated. The peace interviews have returned to a situation of full stall and, in this context, the plan for the security guarantees of the willing appears as a lame duck.
At the end of a week of intense diplomatic interviews – Zelensky was in Copenhagen to meet the Baltic countries, in Paris by the willing and finally to Uzhorod together with the president of the European Council Antonio Costa and the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico – the leader of Kiev said he was satisfied with the support reiterated by the western chancelleries.
On the other hand, the fault between the EU and Russia has further extended itself. The feeling is that only the resumption of dialogue between Trump and Putin can put the preparatory work for a peace that nobody, in Europe, sees in motion in motion. In the meantime, the war does not stop. “Since the beginning of September, Russia has launched more than 1,300 attack drones, almost 900 guided plane bombs and up to 50 missiles of various types against Ukraine”, Zelensky has announced that, in an interview with the American broadcaster Abc News stressed: “I cannot go to Moscow when my country is under attack, every day. I cannot go to the capital of this terrorist.”
The Ukrainian president therefore relaunched the urgency to put multiple penalties on the field, making them more pervasive. The work, in this sense, could bring news in the next few days. The EU Commission team landed in Washington for the interviews with the American counterpart on greater coordination on sanctions. The goal remains to reduce the proceeds of the energy export for Moscow as much as possible, also affecting the third countries that purchase Russian oil and then resell it. At the same time, it will be up to the EU leaders – Costa during the week will be in Budapest and Bratislava – to smooth the opposition of Hungary and Slovakia on the import of Moscow energy.
«It takes a unitary response to destruction, to contempt for diplomatic efforts. President Trump is absolutely right in saying that effective restrictions are needed for Russian oil and gas trade, “said Zelensky. The Ukrainian question also ended up on the Cernobbio table, where the EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovkis, a veteran of the corridors of Palazzo Berlaymont, has made one point clear: “We must continue to provide all possible support to Ukraine, also ensuring that its financial needs are covered in 2026. The expansionist ambitions of Russia extend beyond Ukraine”.
And it is on this basis that Ursula von der Leyen and his team are building the roadmap for European defense from here to 2030. The plan will be presented at the 27 summit in Copenhagen in early October and – Dombrovskis has warned – “will require massive and constant investments and a strong cooperation with our allies”. European efforts continue to be the subject of the cremlin provocations. From Vladivostok, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova called the European leaders alongside Kiev as “the seven dwarfs of Trump, but mutants”. Zakharova took inspiration from the former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who had compared Europeans to meet the White House with Donald Trump at the “Seven Dwarfs”. “But they supported Snow White, they would never have brought him to the witch who wanted to kill her. So they are dwarfs, but of a different fairy tale”; It was the words of Zakharova.