By Virginie LENK

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The peace talks summit in Alaska excludes Europeans and once again demonstrates their weakness.

The new sequence unfolding in Alaska around the Ukraine peace talks once again highlights Europe’s invisibility on this issue. Let’s be blunt: in addition to sanctions against Russia, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will carve up Ukraine as they see fit.

Volodymyr Zelensky traded his country’s rare earth mining contracts for American support. A lost bet, since he is not invited to the negotiations. Trump promised to call him after the meeting, before a three-way discussion. In other words, “let us negotiate, and we’ll keep you informed.”

But the truly humiliated parties in this affair are once again the Europeans. Their frantic efforts to organize a virtual meeting with Trump and Zelensky on Wednesday attest to their lack of preparedness. Since the Russian invasion, Europe has always armed Ukraine with victory in mind. It never had an alternative peace plan in hand. Today, it merely insists on the illegality of Russia’s operation to partition a territory that does not belong to it.

It is because of Ukraine that Brussels swallowed the bitter pill of U.S. tariffs to prevent a sudden military disengagement from Washington. But paradoxically, it strengthened Trump’s belief that he did not need the Europeans—who, moreover, are rarely in agreement among themselves—to resolve the conflict.

Donald Trump will likely concede to most of Russia’s demands in exchange for a ceasefire. He will present himself as the one who brought peace to Ukraine. Without Europe.

Original article:  24heures.ch