Europe scrambled ahead of Trump’s Ukrainian summit with Putin: “They want to divide us and kill Europe,” says Tenenbaum

European leaders have called an emergency meeting in Paris after being cut out of the peace talks between the U.S. and Russia, which are scheduled to begin in Saudi Arabia.

The gulf between the U.S. and Europe on the Ukraine war and security issues crystallized for Europeans this past weekend at the Munich Security Conference, says Elie Tenenbaum, head of the Security Studies Center at the French Institute for International Relations.

“Their worst nightmare has come true,” he says. They know that the Trump administration will try to get a deal with Russia in order to bring about an end to the war.

Tenenbaum says European leaders were hopeful that the U.S. and Europe could work together under the new Trump administration. The comments last week by several U.S. officials in Europe include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, as well as a call from President Trump after a meeting with Russian President Putin.

German Christian Democrat Norbert Röttgen, a longtime advocate for transatlantic alliances, said the Trump administration had in effect declared an ideological war on Europe. “They want to divide us and kill Europe,” he told French newspaper Le Monde.

Source: European leaders scramble ahead of Trump’s Ukraine summit with Putin

Tenenbaum, Putin, Witkoff and Stubb – A U.S.-Russian Detente after the First World War in Ukraine

President Alexander Stubb quoted a famous phrase from Soviet leader, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. There are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen.

Zelensky made the pitch at the meeting, saying that Europe’s future depends on Europeans and decisions about Europe are made in Europe.

“Zelensky is trying to encourage us to stand up and fight, otherwise we’ll surrender and let the Russians and Americans draw the lines,” says Tenenbaum.

Monday’s meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, will be joined by the leaders of Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark. As well as European Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

In an op-ed in British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer wrote that he is ready to send troops to Ukraine to guarantee a peace deal.

Tenenbaum says Europeans will have to fight for a place at the negotiating table “to be enough of a troublemaker that the U.S. and Russia realize the process may derail if they’re kept out of the room.”

Senior U.S. and Russian delegations gathered in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Tuesday for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The talks build on last week’s phone call between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin during which the two leaders agreed to work together toward a negotiated end to the war.

The U.S. team also includes national security adviser Mike Waltz and, notably, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff met with Russian officials in Moscow as recently as last week to negotiate a prisoner exchange that freed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel.

Both sides agreed better relations are in the interests of both Washington and Moscow following the discussion, which was very serious.

The sudden U.S.-Russian detente has stunned U.S. allies in Europe and Ukraine — with both expressing fear of being sidelined in talks that determine their collective futures.

Kyiv would not recognize any agreements made in absentia, and neither was invited to the Saudi talks.

Trump’s Cold War with Putin: What he wants to end it for? Markov’s ex-Kosov adviser Sergei Markov

In a sign of the new spirit of cooperation, the Kremlin confirmed Monday it had approved the unilateral release of an American caught with a small amount of cannabis in his luggage at a Moscow airport earlier this month.

During the time of Biden, several Americans received lengthy prison sentences for similar charges. They were among several Americans jailed by Russia, which the Biden administration said was part of a pattern of “hostage diplomacy” to promote prisoner swaps.

They said that we should probably give territorial concessions, but what does that mean? “So ethnic Russians who live there can be destroyed?” asked the person, alluding to alleged atrocities by the Ukrainian troops.

The president said that any peace would need to end the NATO expansion and the territory seized by Moscow, in exchange for some Russian demands.

The U.S. president has little interest in the specific terms of a settlement, according to Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser.

“The only thing Trump is worried about is his image, and that’s what he wants to end the war,” said Markov, adding that the only thing else Trump cares about is his image. He has the image of a strong guy. He shouldn’t look like a loser.”

Putin has extended an invitation for Trump to visit Moscow in the near future. The thought that Trump could join Putin at Red Square when Russia commemorates the end of World War II has caused speculation.