Ukraine will neither get the Crimean peninsula back nor join NATO.
This is what Donald Trump says ahead of his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
“Zelensky could end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wanted to,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
Trump to Fox News: "Ukraine must say yes"
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Following the US president's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday, he will now host Volodymyr Zelenskyj at the White House. And the message ahead of the meeting is clear: Ukraine must give up land in order for a peace agreement to be reached.
In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform on Monday night, Trump let Zelensky know that he will not be able to get back the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and can forget about NATO membership.
“President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump writes.
In capital letters, he then announces that there will be"NO JOINING NATO FOR UKRAINE", and that Crimea, which"Obama gave away", will not be regained either, writes CNN.
“Impossible to give up land”
Before that, Volodymyr Zelensky had published a series of posts on X in which he rejected proposals for a peace agreement with Vladimir Putin in exchange for land.
“The Ukrainian constitution makes it impossible to give up or trade land. Since the territorial issue is so important, it should only be discussed by the leaders of Russia and Ukraine,” Zelensky writes.
“So far, Russia has shown no signs that this will happen, and if Russia refuses, new sanctions must follow.”
Unlike the previous chaotic visit to Washington, when Zelensky was repeatedly attacked by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who accused him of being ungrateful, this time the Ukrainian will not come alone.
Support of European leaders
On Sunday, he held a video meeting with several European leaders – including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
After that, it became clear that Zelenskyy would be joined by a seven-member delegation consisting of several European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"Big day at the White House tomorrow. I've never had so many European leaders there at once. My great honor to host them," Trump wrote after the harsh words against Zelensky.
“Robust security guarantees”
On Sunday, Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said that Russia had agreed to certain"concessions" regarding land cessions in the meeting with Trump.
He also said that Putin had agreed to US security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a possible peace deal.
– We agreed on robust security guarantees that I would say change the picture, Witkoff said in an interview with CNN, writes TT.
The security guarantees would be similar to those that NATO countries have through their Article Five, which means that all countries' defenses are activated if one country is attacked.
“It is important that the USA agrees to cooperate with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and thus for all of Europe,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“This is a significant change, but there are no details about how it will work – what the role of the US and Europe will be or what the EU can do. We need security to work in practice, just like with Article Five of the NATO Treaty.”
