U.S. military aid pause will continue until Trump decides that Zelenskyi backs peace negotiations with Russia, The Wall Street Journal says. EU leaders will discuss troop deployment to Ukraine at Thursday’s summit. Ukraine drones destroy Russia’s Murom-M long-range surveillance system.
U.S. military aid pause will continue until Trump decides that Zelenskyi backs peace negotiations with Russia, WSJ says
The pause of U.S. military aid to Ukraine will continue until Trump decides that Zelenskyi backs peace negotiations with Russia, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called his heated White House meeting with President Trump last week “regrettable” and set out his vision of a path to peace in his most concerted public effort yet to repair his relationship with the U.S. leader.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace,” Zelensky wrote Tuesday on social media. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians.” He said Ukraine was ready to sign a mineral-rights agreement with the U.S. and negotiate “under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
Senior U.S. officials say it is unclear if Zelensky’s statement will be enough to persuade Trump to restart U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which the White House halted Monday following his combative meeting with the Ukrainian leader three days earlier.
Since the diplomatic implosion at the White House, European allies have been holding talks on plans to back Ukraine while pushing Zelensky to try to mend his relationship with Trump. European leaders and Zelensky have said that U.S. security guarantees for Kyiv are critical to any peace agreement. Trump has said he would only be willing to discuss such commitments after a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump complained in recent private meetings that Zelensky had shown no intention of opening talks with Putin, officials said.
The move to curtail aid temporarily was aimed at showing the Ukrainian leader that the White House was serious about brokering peace, they added.
Even signing a deal granting U.S. companies access to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals might not be enough to persuade Trump to resume aid, officials said.
European officials fear a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia won’t ultimately succeed in halting Moscow unless the White House agrees to guarantee Ukraine’s survival, with continued military aid and even military action, if necessary. Trump officials have ruled out putting U.S. forces in Ukraine.
Speaking to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said he was “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine.” He said he received the “important letter” from Zelensky earlier that day, saying that his country is ready to “come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.” Trump said his administration has continued to talk to Russia about ending the war and has received “strong signals that they are ready for peace.”
During his nearly 100-minute speech, Trump said that although he supported Greenland’s right to determine its future, he would welcome it into the United States. “And I think we’re going to get it — one way or the other, we’re going to get it,” he said in remarks. He also repeated his previous assertions about retaking the Panama Canal.
Trump also said that he had imposed a “freeze on all foreign aid,” and had withdrawn the United States from what he called the “unfair” Paris Climate Accord, the “corrupt” World Health Organization and the “anti-American” U.N. human rights council.
EU leaders to discuss troop deployment to Ukraine at Thursday’s summit
EU leaders at an emergency summit on Ukraine in Brussels on Thursday will begin to draft security guarantees for the country that include deployment of their countries’ troops, the European Pravda said Wednesday, citing an unnamed EU official familiar with the meeting’s agenda.
Leaders of EU countries are set to discuss the deployment of troops to Ukraine after the war ends or a ceasefire takes effect, the source said. The discussion is to include “planning” of such a mission.
There had been no debates on the matter, the source said, adding that some EU countries had publicly stated their willingness to send troops to Ukraine as part of security guarantees while others had opposed the prospect.
The EU official voiced hope that more countries will join the initiative during the summit.
A decision to deploy troops to Ukraine can only be made after a peace deal is clear.
It’s too early to talk about concrete decisions in a constantly evolving political context without a ceasefire and peace deal in place, he said.
The EU views support to Ukraine’s Armed Forces as the first element of the security guarantees, so that the country can protect itself in case of a new aggression. The statement is part of the summit’s draft conclusions, the source said.
At the summit in London on Sunday, EU leaders said support to the Ukrainian military was the first tier of security guarantees to the country.
Hungary has threatened to block any EU support for Ukraine at the summit on Thursday.
EU leaders are already bracing for a pro-Russia group of leaders led by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán derailing the whole thing.
Ukraine drones destroy Russia’s Murom-M long-range surveillance system
Ukrainian drones hit a Russian Murom-M long-range surveillance system near the city of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region, the Khortytsia operational-strategic group of forces said on Wednesday. The Falcon unit of the State Border Guard Service’s Hart brigade was behind the operation.
“The drone protection net that covered the system from all sides did not help the adversary,” Khortytsia said in a statement. “The first two ‘birds’ that the Falcon drone pilots launched cut a hole in it, while the third one destroyed the system completely,” it added.
Russian military personnel and a vehicle they used to take infantry troops and munitions to the positions also came under fire during the drone strike, the statement reads.