By Tom Balmforth
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was set to meet Donald Trump at the United Nations on Tuesday and press for new sanctions on Russia, in a fresh bid to persuade the U.S. president to swing more firmly behind Kyiv’s war effort.
Key goals for Zelenskiy will be to discuss how to improve Ukraine’s air defences and set up a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine as part of Trump’s peace effort, a source in Ukraine’s delegation told Reuters.
Trump has pushed the idea of a meeting between Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly with him also taking part, as a way to make progress in his bid to end the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Moscow has said no such meeting is planned and that the agenda would have to be well prepared for it to happen. Kyiv has pointed to that as proof that Russia is not willing to deviate from its maximalist aims and obstructing Trump’s efforts.
The meeting in New York was set to start a few hours after Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly, saying the Ukraine war had not made “Russia look good”.
The U.S. president threatened economic measures against Moscow but said he wanted U.S. allies to take the same steps and derided European powers for continuing to buy Russian energy despite the war.
Kyiv’s hopes of winning tough new U.S. sanctions on Russia have been fading. A new pragmatism in Ukraine has made Zelenskiy’s latest talks with Trump less fraught than earlier meetings, with lessons learnt from February’s Oval Office bust-up.
Though Kyiv expects no new direct U.S. military aid, its war effort relies heavily on U.S. intelligence sharing and a new mechanism that allows Europe to buy it U.S. weapons such as air defenses.
That makes preserving the relationship with Trump vital for Kyiv, even though Ukrainians have been disappointed as he has reoriented policy away from the unambiguous military and diplomatic support Kyiv received from former President Joe Biden.
Ukrainians were shocked when Trump gave red carpet treatment to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, and believe Moscow will not stop its war unless it faces heavy external pressure, including sanctions.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose punitive economic measures on Russia, but not followed through on them as of yet in what U.S. officials have said is an effort to give the push for peace a chance of succeeding.
NOT JUST CHARITY
The Ukrainian delegation has so far used its trip to the U.N. to show how it not only needs military and political assistance from its allies, but that it also has important experience, knowledge and resources to offer its allies.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday that Kyiv would be ready to integrate its battle-hardened air defence network into those of its Western neighbours to assist after NATO accused Russia of violating its airspace in Estonia and Poland.
Estonia said last week that three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace and remained there for 12 minutes, while Poland denounced Russia for more than a dozen drones that it said entered its airspace.
Russia has accused the West of hysteria and denied that its jets entered Estonian airspace.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Alistair Bell)
Comments