Putin’s objective is clear: to use the US president as an accomplice, whether conscious or not, to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions and capitulate. The meeting, which was supposed to be about ‘pursuing peace’ in Anchorage, turned into ‘self-inflicted humiliation’ for Washington, without any concessions in return. Fascinated by the former KGB officer, Trump offered him spectacular legitimisation on American soil. If the worst, a ‘Yalta of the Arctic’,[1] seems to have been avoided for the time being, European leaders are expected at the White House this evening to try to reason with a president who advised Ukraine to ‘accept the deal’ by summoning Zelensky to the Oval Office, alone, to better make him bend, who will then be joined by several leaders who have come to support him. What Europeans should remember is that they are in a position of strength, as historian Françoise Thom pointed out in an article published in Le Monde,[2] because Russia is economically dependent on Europe. However, these leaders must prove themselves equal to the task, unlike their predecessors in Munich. This would be an excellent start for the ‘new diplomacy’ referred to yesterday by Emmanuel Macron. After the fine words, it is now time to take action by supporting Ukraine and thwarting such a crude and despicable trap set by a country that we still want to believe is our ally.
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