EU and Ukraine will not let Trump's peace initiative through because of one demand only

Donald Trump's advisers have three options for settling the conflict in Ukraine. Some points have provoked a sharp reaction from Kyiv and the European Union.

Photo: flickr.com by Gage Skidmore, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Donald Trump

Trump set up a work group the purpose of which is to convince Moscow and Kyiv to sit down at the negotiating table.

Special envoy for the settlement in Ukraine, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Vice President-elect James David Vance, and former head of national intelligence Richard Grenell have developed three options for the conflict to end. They imply territorial concessions from Ukraine and Kyiv's refusal to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

It is believed that Donald Trump will be guided by the "carrot and stick" principle:

• If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not agree to the negotiations, Washington will stop supporting Ukraine,
• if Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses, the US will increase the support for Kyiv.

Ukraine, EU members and a number of  American legislators will most likely oppose Donald Trump's proposals due to the demand for Ukraine to abjure NATO membership, Reuters reports.

Zelensky called Ukraine's accession to the alliance a key point of his "victory plan". EU leaders and US Congress will therefore try to stop Trump from promoting his initiative.

During a meeting with senior officials of the European Union in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Zelensky stressed out that Ukraine would not accept a partial invitation to NATO.

"A part of Ukraine's territories cannot be invited to NATO. This is an automatic recognition that (…) all other territories are not Ukrainian. Therefore, Ukraine will never agree to this. If there is an invitation, it should only be for all territories at a time," Zelensky said.

It is worthy of note that Russia remains strongly opposed to Ukraine's NATO membership.