President Trump had previously said that Zelenskyy has until Christmas to make a decision on the negotiated ceasefire and peace plan organized over weeks of discussions between the U.S., Ukraine and Russian intermediaries.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy then rushed to Paris, London, Brussels and Rome to coordinate with European stakeholder interests. [Notably, he never prioritized discussion of the proposal with the people of Ukraine.]
Zelenskyy then announced his European partners were close to finalizing a counterproposal deal.
Interestingly, the leaders of Germany, U.K., France and Ukraine then leak they had a 2-hour phone call with President Trump. It’s interesting, because President Trump chose to stay quiet about the call as the “coalition of the willing” plotted their next move to keep the USA attached to their collective destiny.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they “agreed that this was a critical moment – for Ukraine, its people and for shared security across the Euro-Atlantic region”. A White House official confirmed the call took place but did not give details. {link}
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke with the other heads of state, declaring that they were at a “critical moment,” according to a spokesperson for Downing Street. “The Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz today,” they said. {link}
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz then announces the “coalition of the willing”, which is specifically Germany, Great Britain and France, will reassemble with President Zelenskyy to solidify the next steps in the “security guarantee” part of their proposal. Previously, the trio would only commit to be “willing” if the USA agreed to protect their military forces on the non-NATO territory of Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine, together with American and European partners, is working on three separate documents related to security and the country’s postwar development. {link}
♦ On the ‘Security Guarantee‘ issue, this is where a quagmire is presented by European leaders.
From a pragmatic standpoint, a European demilitarized zone, stood up and supported by EU military forces, would appear to be the best solution. However, the “coalition of the willing” say they are willing to put security troops into Ukraine, but only if the USA will defend them if attacked by Russia. In essence, quasi-NATO forces on a non-NATO country, that if attacked would draw the entirety of NATO into the conflict, including the United States.
The U.K, France, Germany and EU Commission want a security structure similar to NATO for Ukraine that legally binds the United States to defend their interests if the ceasefire does not hold. President Trump has rejected this construct as yet another way for Europe to pull the U.S into a conflict zone that is not in our vital national security interests.
The ceasefire proposal structured by Trump, Witkoff and Kushner – seemingly supported by Russia, does not permit Ukraine to join NATO; however, EU membership is entirely up to the EU and people of Ukraine to decide. If Ukraine joins the EU, then EU forces alone should provide the security guarantee, not NATO which includes the U.S. and Canada.
It will be interesting to see how the Europeans organize their “security guarantee” proposal, which is reportedly the intent of the December 15th summit in Berlin.
The European ruling class is supporting Zelenskyy as a proxy hedge against Russia. Meanwhile, while the non-ruling class of Ukrainian young men continue to be killed on the Eastern fields of Ukraine as their security is being debated.
