A web of complex issues remain as peace talks continuepublished at 19:43 British Summer Time 19 August
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent
Kyiv’s European allies are keen to capitalise on yesterday’s sense of momentum, engaging with the Trump administration while they feel they have the president’s attention.
Hence the urgent dispatch to Washington of the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. And today’s virtual meeting of the more than 30 members of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, at which Donald Trump’s apparent change of heart on security guarantees for Ukraine was discussed.
Trump says he’s willing to help the coalition, hinting this morning that this might include air support, but definitely not American boots on the ground.
But the Anglo-French coalition, first discussed back in March, still lacks a clearly defined mission. The former UK Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace says Ukraine’s allies have to know what they’re doing.
The other looming question is land. Trump clearly believes that Ukraine is going to have to give up part of what Kyiv regards as sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Interviewed on Fox News this morning, Trump said that most of the eastern Donbas region was already in Russian hands. Ukraine, he said, was going to “get a lot of land” by making peace but didn’t elaborate.
Ukraine knows that painful territorial sacrifices are almost certainly looming, but Yuriy Sak, a Ukrainian government official, says this is not about legal recognition.
Security guarantees and land – a tangled web of complex issues still to be thrashed out in order to bring this conflict to a close.
Trump has, belatedly, recognised that it’s not simple. He believes the force of his personality can end it. It’s going to take a lot more than that.
