LOS ANGELES.–Shocked by 78-year-old President Donald Trump making peace with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, the EU has no coherent response to Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky’s demand for security guarantees.  Zelensky complained he was excluded from Trump and Putin’s peace talks, when, the two leaders, have only had phone conversations.  Trump’s national security team met Feb. 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to discuss normalizing U.S.-Russian relations, not something Zelensky would not attend.  Complaining that he’s been excluded from peace talks, Zelensky riled up his backers in the EU, thinking that Trump hasn’t been fair not consulting the Ukrainian president. But the Riyadh meeting had more to with restarting normal U.S. relations with Russia, something the EU finds unnerving because it leave Brussels out on a limb.

            Zelensky has pushed Brussels to take a stand against Trump in supporting Ukraine’s right to assert control over peace talks, even though Zelensky’s past peace plans have been rejected out-of-hand by Moscow.  Zelensky actually thought he could demand that Putin be prosecuted by The Hague’s International Criminal Court for war crimes, pay war reparations for all the damage done to Ukraine over the last three years and, most importantly, remove all Russian troops from Ukrainian soil.  So, if Zelensky or the EU thinks that’s going to be productive in any peace talks they’re not dealing with reality.  Putin wants to Zelensky to cede territory on the current 600 mile battlefront, including holding on to Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.  Zelensky has demanded that Putin remove all his troops from Ukrainian territory, not something that’s going to happen in peace talks.

            Zelensky also wants the EU to insist that Ukraine can receive NATO membership in the immediate future. He’s been told by NATO that Ukraine does not qualify because it’s not a democracy, financially unstable and at war with the Kremlin.  With the Kremlin opposed to Ukraine’s NATO membership, why does NATO keep coming up?  Zelensky has provoked and antagonized Putin with thoughts of NATO encroachment, actually prompting the current conflict. Meeting in Paris Feb. 17, European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, don’t know what to say about post-war Ukrainian security.  Most EU members know that without the U.S. assuring security, there are no guarantees for Ukraine.  U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks tough but knows that U.K. can’t assure post-war security without U.S. help.

            Europe is still reeling from the dislocation from the Biden days where the whole U.S. focus was on battling the Kremlin.  Now Trump has made peace with Putin, something widely publicized but not believed by EU officials until now.  Why would the EU want to continue the Ukraine War when Trump has normalized U.S.-Russian relations?  Europeans living in their own bubble didn’t consider how Trump normalizing relations with Moscow would change everything.  Listening to Zelensky say that Trump lives in Russia’s “disinformation space,” could not be more insulting.  He was called “Putin puppet” by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in what’s known as the Russian hoax. Whatever the EU thinks of Putin, they know they don’t want to continue funding Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin.  Trump’s pivot to normalize relations with Russia should motivate the EU to do the same.

            EU leaders, including the U.K., can’t abandon its loyalty to the U.S., whatever they think of Ukraine’s dilemma with the Kremlin.  “We are in, I think, a very serious situation here where the assumptions of many decades have simply been blown away—and principally, the assumption that the U.S. will underwrites Europe’s security,” said John Lough an associate fellow at London’s Chatham House.  Lough can’t speak for anyone other than give his opinion.  But Trump has said nothing about abandoning NATO, preserving the post WW II, 80-year-old defense shield for Europe.  Zelensky made the same point as Lough at the Munich Security Conference, trying to discredit Trump.  Europeans know that Trump has not changed anything other than asked NATO to be more responsible.  Trump wants to make peace with Russia to stabilize the European Continent and promote peace.

            EU officials will eventually get on the same page a Trump, realizing the Ukraine War only harms peace on the European Continent.  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, faced with dismal chances of reelection this Sunday, said it was premature to talk of security guarantees when there’s no peace plan in place. No matter what sympathy the EU has with Zelensky, it’s not enough to take on the Ukraine War or to sabotage the EU relationship with the U.S. When 82-year-old former President Joe Biden was in office, he had his hate-Russia time with Zelensky.  Now that Biden’s gone, Zelensky can’t transition to Trump without kicking-and-screaming.  Zelensky should be thrilled that Trump wants to end the Ukraine War, assure Ukrainian sovereignty and start a new beginning for U.S. investment in Ukraine.  Zelensky misses his anti-Putin bromance with Biden.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.