{"id":419662,"date":"2025-02-25T12:03:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/25\/macron-trump-ucraina-pace-ue\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:58:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:58:44","slug":"macron-in-trumps-court-eu-ready-to-send-troops-to-ukraine-peace-is-not-a-surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/25\/macron-in-trumps-court-eu-ready-to-send-troops-to-ukraine-peace-is-not-a-surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron visits Trump: EU “ready to send troops” to Ukraine, but peace is not a “surrender”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the hours when at the UN General Assembly, the United States, alongside\u00a0Russia, Belarus, and North Korea,\u00a0voted<\/a> against a resolution condemning Moscow, French President Emmanuel Macron performed a series of political acrobatics and balancing acts in the Oval Office of the White House<\/strong> to try to bring Donald Trump<\/strong> back to the Atlanticist line or at least mend\u00a0the rift<\/a> between Washington and Brussels. Between praise, concessions, and denials, Macron may have partially succeeded.<\/p>\n

Macron, the first European leader to visit the new US administration, warned Trump – who has said he wants to be remembered “as a peacemaker and unifier” – against “surrendering” Ukraine. The interest of everyone — Americans and Europeans — “is an agreement on Ukraine that includes security guarantees<\/strong>,” the transalpine leader stressed. The two connected\u00a0from Washington for the G7 leaders’ meeting, chaired by Canadian President Justin Trudeau from Kyiv, where\u00a0he was<\/a> with Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa.<\/p>\n

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Emmanuel Macron and\u00a0Donald Trump at the end of the press conference at the White House, 24\/02\/2025. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Despite the obvious rifts, the meeting between the two presidents was cordial, at times warm. Or at least ‘physical,’ as when Macron interrupted Trump by taking his hand to correct the tycoon’s false claims about assistance to Ukraine<\/strong>. “Just so you know, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They’re taking their money back,” Trump told reporters. “No, we have paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort. Like the US:\u00a0loans, guarantees, grants<\/strong>. We provided real money, to be clear,” Macron promptly replied. With a skeptical grin, Trump replied, “If you believe that, that’s fine with me. They get their money back, and we don’t. But now we do.”<\/p>\n

The key step ahead of the negotiations concerns security guarantees for Ukraine. According to Trump, Putin “has no problem” with accepting a European military contingent<\/strong> in Ukraine as part of the agreement. “I specifically asked him this question.\u00a0He will accept it,” the Republican president said. Despite resistance from some EU governments during last week’s\u00a0talks<\/a> at the Elysee Palace, Macron confirmed that European leaders are “ready to send troops to verify that peace is respected,<\/strong>” but they “need American protection.” This point will be crucial in future negotiations.\u00a0Putin opposes the presence of NATO forces\u00a0in Ukraine but could accept European peacekeeping forces outside the Atlantic Alliance umbrella. However,\u00a0Europeans\u00a0want ‘Uncle Sam’ to have their\u00a0back\u00a0somehow\u00a0– yet to be defined.<\/p>\n

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\"Donald<\/a>
Then-president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, 2\/12\/24 (photo: Ludovic Marin\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Trump then returned to the controversial minerals deal with Kyiv, describing it as “very close.” The US president announced that Zelensky “may come this week or next week to sign the agreement” by which\u00a0Ukraine would cede part of its mineral revenues to the United States<\/strong> to repay Washington for its assistance over the past three years. Last week, the Ukrainian premier\u00a0rejected Trump’s request to receive $500 billion in critical minerals, a sum that is more than three times what Washington has spent so far to support Kyiv.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then, there is the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, a point on which Trump seems quite flexible. “We will see,” he replied to those who asked whether Kyiv should be willing to cede territory to Russia as part of a negotiation. Macron clarified that for Europe,\u00a0peace<\/strong> “must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty<\/strong> and allow Ukraine to negotiate with other stakeholders.”<\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs,\u00a0Kaja Kallas<\/strong>,\u00a0will arrive in Washington and meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In the coming days – confirming that Trump prefers\u00a0bilateral relations over those with the European Union – it will be the turn of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer,<\/strong> expected at the White House. The worst-case scenario of a two-way negotiation between Trump and Putin seems to be receding. Europe and Ukraine will sit at the negotiation table. As\u00a0reported by Agence France-Presse, Putin reportedly stated that “not only European countries but also others have the right and can participate<\/strong>.” Regarding the Russian president, Trump said, “I really think he wants to make a deal. I could be wrong, but he wants to make a deal.” The question is what kind of deal — and with what balance of power — will the European Union and Ukraine be able to negotiate with the two superpowers.<\/p>\n

Between now and Mar. 6, the extraordinary EU summit of heads of state and government on Ukraine, the 27 member states will try to build a solid negotiating position. If possible, in coordination with the American ally, but without betraying the principles that have guided European action in support of Ukraine, which Trump seems to have already sacrificed in the name of peace at any cost. To “prepare” for the extraordinary summit, the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, has called a videoconference of the 27 leaders <\/strong>tomorrow morning (Feb. 26), during which they will hear “a report from President Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> on his recent visit to Washington DC.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the rift between the US and European countries at the UN Assembly deepens, a cordial meeting between Trump and the French president takes place. Macron stresses that Russia is “the aggressor” and contradicts the tycoon on loans to Ukraine: “We provided real money, like the US”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":419617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26411,26260,30548],"class_list":["post-419662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-emmanuel-macron-en","tag-ukraine-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419724,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419662\/revisions\/419724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}