"Russia's bombings demonstrate that Moscow doesn't want peace," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday in a video call with Europeans on the eve of today's bilateral meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump . The White House clarified that the meeting was brought forward to 1:00 p.m., or 7:00 p.m. Italian time. Shortly beforehand, Trump, as announced on his social media account, had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin: "It was a constructive call."
Zelensky is already in the United States. Yesterday, he stopped in Canada for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney . As for his European partners, "they have agreed that security guarantees for Ukraine are crucial" and must be "specific and reliable," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said immediately after the video conference during which Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni, and Keir Starmer—along with the leaders of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, EU leaders, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte—reaffirmed their support for Kiev ahead of a meeting with uncertain prospects, linked—in Europe's view—to Trump's fickleness, while also emphasizing Europe's role in preventing a peace imposed from above.
"Never before," Meloni stated, "is it more important to maintain unity of vision between European partners, Ukraine, and the United States," to hold Moscow "to account" and push it to truly sit down "at the negotiating table." Zelensky and the Europeans will meet again immediately after the Mar-a-Lago meeting , for which Kiev "has our full support," Merz emphasized.
In the meantime, Putin has already returned to threatening , even verbally dictating the boundaries of the negotiations: "If Kiev does not want to resolve the conflict peacefully, we will carry out the operation by force," he thundered, ordering the Ukrainians to "withdraw from the territories" claimed by Moscow.
The shockwaves of the Russian attacks, meanwhile, have spread far beyond Ukraine's borders. Yesterday, Warsaw responded by scrambling fighter jets and led the continental response, denouncing the bombings "despite Zelensky's willingness to make concessions."
In Odessa , overnight attacks, described as "earthquake-like," shattered more than 100 windows in seven residential buildings and damaged three social institutions. The announcement was made on Telegram by Serhiy Lysak, director of the Odessa military administration. By 8 a.m. local time, 14 people had contacted the operational headquarters for help. Lysak added that, according to DTEK, emergency power outages are occurring in some areas of the city due to overloaded lines. Electric transportation is still out of service, but buses are running.
(Unioneonline/vl)
