Hi Vladimir, it’s me Donald…
By Anna-Magdalena Glockzin, 4 minutes.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon in 1969, then U.S. President Richard Nixon called them from the Oval Office, which marked, according to him, “the most historical telephone call ever made from the White House”. Also, the phone conversation between the then U.S. President Barack Obama and then Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013 went down in history, as it constituted the first instance of communication since 1979 between these two countries. In the last week, there was another phone call made by the current U.S. President, which can be considered historical, although not necessarily with a similar positive connotation.
On the 12th of February, Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin. With the war in Ukraine’s third anniversary approaching, they discussed for more than an hour on how to end the conflict and achieve peace. Since the first months of the war, there have been no publicly acknowledged peace talks. However, the major problem is that Trump called Putin without informing the European Union or European leaders about his intentions. Furthermore, the approach chosen by Trump and his administration shows their willingness to align with Russian demands to overtake parts of Ukrainian territory.
President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 Helsinki summit.
By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70916583
The phone call(s)
Trump called his talk with Putin a “lengthy and highly productive phone call”, during which they both agreed to work “very closely” on a solution to the Ukraine war. Trump’s action is part of his overall goal to normalise U.S.-Russia relations, thereby relieving Putin from his international isolation. During his election campaign, Trump had already announced that he would end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible. However, he emphasised that he would conduct negotiations with Putin, leaving Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the picture. The U.S. president is willing to give Putin what he wants, despite Russia being the aggressive actor, invading Ukraine in 2022 without any meaningful provocation and launching the war.
After the call, Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social that “as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine”. Moreover, he announced that he would call Zelenskyy as well to “inform him of the conversation” - which he did. Afterwards, Zelenskyy and Trump emphasised that Ukraine wants to make peace and the Ukrainian President stated that “together with the U.S., we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace.”
The deal
However, whether this lasting, reliable peace is within reach remains uncertain. On the same day, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO allies at the headquarters that the return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was “unrealistic” and an “illusionary goal”. Right now, Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv to give up this territory and assume full neutrality. Furthermore, Hegseth stated that no U.S. troops would be deployed in Ukraine whatsoever and those troops deployed by NATO countries which would be stationed in Ukraine would not be covered by Article Five. This article of the military alliance describes the mechanism of collective defence, meaning that an attack on one ally is viewed as an attack on all allies.
Additionally, the plan is for senior Trump administration officials to head to Saudi Arabia after the end of the Munich Security Conference, which took place last weekend. There, they will meet with a Russian delegation. At the moment, there does not seem to be any other party involved, since these plans came as a surprise to Ukraine and the country’s representatives have not been invited. Also and more generally, the EU will not be part of Ukraine peace talks either. The American Ukraine envoy said in Munich that Europeans will not have a place at the negotiation table.
The EU must have a role
European leaders and diplomats mostly reacted by emphasising the importance of Ukraine and the EU being part of the negotiations. The High Representative Kaja Kallas stated on X that “in any negotiation, Europe must have a central role” and that “Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity are unconditional”. This was reiterated by various top politicians from EU member states during the Munich Security Conference, especially given the deeply unsettling speech made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, where he questioned the state of democracy and free speech in European countries like Germany. The Foreign Minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, stressed that “there will be no decision made on Ukraine without Ukraine”. Further, she stated that “peace can only be achieved together”, including Ukraine and the Europeans. Officials from Poland, France and the UK highlighted the need to increase military support for Ukraine, with the French Foreign Minister affirming that Ukraine should be on a “pathway” to NATO.
Starting on 17th of February, European leaders will hold a Ukraine emergency summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, discussing possible next steps with regard to Trump’s solo action in “resolving” the war. It becomes evident that Trump does not take Europe as an international actor seriously and does not care about the nature of the conflict. It appears that for him, the issue exists somewhere away. For Europe, however, the Ukraine war represents an immediate border crisis which directly impacts European states and citizens. Therefore, it is crucial to not only state but show Europe’s relevance and importance in handling and solving this conflict.
