Amid missiles and diplomacy, Russia is exploiting western divisions over Ukraine | World news

FFor days, officials across Europe rushed into hastily planned meetings, recounting details of frantic calls and hours of negotiations. But after a tumultuous few weeks that ended with the Russian President warning that his country was ready for war with Europe, peace in Ukraine does not seem imminent.

Instead, a glaring conflict of views in support of the peace process became clearly evident.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, leaders across Europe have become increasingly vocal about what they see as the imperialist intentions of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Leaders in France and Germany have described Russia as a destabilizing power with its sights set on the EU and NATO, and argued that any Ukrainian peace plan must take this into account. “Rewarding aggression will only invite more,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said recently. said reporters.

But this view contrasts sharply with that of leaders across the Atlantic, who treat Putin as if he were just another world leader, rather than a leader who appears to have an endless appetite and ambition for expansion. Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff shrugged off the suggestion that Russia would take more territory in Europe in an interview in the US: “I take him at his word in that sense.”

Similarly friendly stances have been expressed by Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, and Europe has fallen into a depressing routine of trying to “push the Trump pendulum away from Russia,” as our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour recently noted , only to watch Europe return to its “natural position of sympathy for Putin.”

The result is a series of events that have become routine: Washington launches a “diplomatic cavalry offensive” against Ukraine; As former Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba pointed out in a recent opinion piece, Kiev, along with other European capitals, managed to fend this off. But the gains are short-lived: “They are stabilizing the situation, but they are not actually winning the war. This pattern will undoubtedly continue.”

The recent flurry of diplomatic activity mirrored the excitement in August when Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska. European leaders frantically cleared their schedules to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who gathered in Washington for a show of solidarity in what would later be called the “Great European Offensive Offensive.”

Throughout all this frenetic activity, missiles and drones continued to rain down on Ukraine night after night, which makes one thing clear. “Putin ruthlessly reminds the world at night that for him war is the main means of achieving ‘peace’,” Kuleba wrote.

This week is shaping up to be an important example. On Tuesday, Witkoff arrived in Moscow with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner after leaders in Ukraine fended off the imposition of a U.S. plan that was heavily favorable to Russia.

European leaders expressed concern that the Moscow talks would put pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, while Putin claimed that Russian forces had taken control of the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine; this claim was quickly denied by the Ukrainian military and Zelenskyy. Shortly thereafter, Putin made hawkish statements accusing European governments of being “on the side of war” by trying to sabotage the peace process. “Russia has no intention of fighting with Europe, but if Europe starts, we are ready now,” he said.

The Guardian’s Russia affairs correspondent Pjotr ​​Sauer said the remarks appeared to be an attempt to drive a wedge between Washington and Europe. Russia was apparently happy to take advantage of this clash of views and pushed for a peace agreement only as long as it was on Russia’s terms.

“The Russians see this as a win-win situation,” Pjotr ​​said. Either the peace plan will continue and Russia’s maximalist demands will actually require Ukraine to surrender, or they will “keep fighting.”

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