NYT: Europe prepares for a longer war in Ukraine, with no strategy to end it

Pic.: ‘Foreign Policy’

With President Trump and his team preoccupied with the war in Iran, Europe is preparing for a longer war in Ukraine, with dwindling expectations for a negotiated settlement between Moscow and Kyiv, ‘The New York Times’ notes.

Nor is there an obvious replacement mediator with any significant leverage with the two sides.

Fifteen months after Mr. Trump vowed to end the war in a day, “we find ourselves largely where we began in the negotiations,” said James Sherr, a Russia and Ukraine analyst speaking from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

He added, “Increasingly, the Europeans understand that there is a fundamental incompatibility of interests and objectives between Ukraine and Russia, and the only sensible course is to continue to stand with Ukraine.”

Zelensky “has lost 80 percent of his illusions” about his ability to get Mr. Trump’s support, Mr. Sherr said. “He’s in a very different place in his understanding of America.” 

There are some back-channel conversations continuing at a lower level between Kyiv and Washington, The New York Times has reported. Ukrainian officials continue to push for three-party talks with the United States and Russia, which has rejected them. The Ukrainians have even suggested that the area of the eastern Donbas region that Moscow and Washington demand Ukraine abandon be called “Donnyland,” an effort to appeal to Mr. Trump’s vanity. But serious talks have stopped for now.

The decision on Wednesday by the European Union to provide Ukraine a 90 billion euro ($106 billion) interest-free loan is a powerful sign of European commitment to Ukraine in the face of American disinterest and intensified Russian attacks.

Europeans hope that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will come to accept that Moscow has gained what it can in Ukraine and should pocket its wins and negotiate seriously to end the conflict, but they recognize that Mr. Putin wants to deal with Washington, not Brussels, said several European officials who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues. So they would welcome a renewal of serious American engagement.

So neither side feels great pressure to settle now.

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