Europe is afraid that Trump is preparing to stay away from the Ukraine talks

European and Ukrainian officials fear that Donald Trump is about to walk away from peace negotiations with Kiev and Moscow, and may use slight progress in the conversations as a “excuse” to say that his job has been, according to the people who have been informed of the discussions.

The US President was elected with a promise to end the war in “24 hours”, but his initiatives to Russia Vladimir Putin and attempts to run out of the Ukrainian leadership have failed to win his initial suggestion for a 30 -day ceasefire, not to mention the presence of permanent entry.

After talks with the United States team in recent days, European and Ukrainian officials are convinced that Trump is ready to seize any kind of penetration this week, which represents the first 100 days in his position-even if it is less than a long-term solution.

One European official said that Trump was “putting a position as he gives himself excuses to move away and leave the matter to Ukraine and the United States (Europe) to reform it.”

They added that Putin’s unwillingness to agree to the demands of the United States and the main United States such as maintaining a post -war Ukrainian military force, and making the complexity of the conflict Trump re -evaluating his commitment to a peace agreement.

On Sunday, Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, described the “embarrassment” of the talks and indicated that Washington is unwilling to drag it into extended negotiations.

On Monday, the Russian President offered a three-day ceasefire during a holiday from May 8 to 10, when Russia celebrates the Soviet victory in World War II-but he failed to maintain his previous pledges to stop hostilities on Easter and the Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

A person in the discussions said that US officials “were concerned that they were really returning with anything in conversations with Russia” and began to float ideas for a deal that could match the Time of Trump’s fast.

But Trump’s pushing for a quick end to the war was against Putin’s definition of approval of the conditions that lack his maximum demands, such as Ukraine, “not adjacent”.

The person said: “There are people who believe that the Russians may be in line with Trump’s proposal, adding that the case was that” there is nothing to accomplish this work. “Some elements are really good, but it is impatient to do so now this is the problem.”

Trump praised during the weekend of his Ukrainian counterpart, Voludmir Zelinski, who met him in the Vatican on Saturday, where they were attending the funeral of Pope Francis. Putin also criticized, saying that he was “surprised and disappointed” in Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.

But some Ukrainian officials told FT that they were afraid that the American president would walk away, as a senior official said he considered him a “dangerous possibility”.

However, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhi Tykhyi said that the meeting between the presidents was “constructive and good.”

Following a general dispute between Trump and Zellinski at the Oval Office in February, Ukrainian officials said they had suffered from injury after positive confrontations, only to stop when their American counterparts return to Washington.

Kiev was initially encouraged by a post from Trump on the social truth platform shortly after the Vatican meeting, in which Russia threatened new sanctions to make it to the negotiating table.

But one day after Trump Rubio’s Foreign Minister, cold water poured the idea of ​​more commercial restrictions, which he said would extend the war.

“This week will be a really important week in which we have to make a decision on whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to participate in,” Rubio told NBC.

Tykhyi rejected these comments, saying that Kyiv saw them “as part of the communications strategy.” “It is clear that the United States at this stage, as a mediator, is trying to push the two sides (Ukraine and Russia) forward to achieve peace, and so we read these data,” he said.

On Monday, Russia has increased its conditions with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, saying that Moscow considered “international recognition” by including five Ukrainian regions to be a “necessity” for any deal.

The first official said that all these developments led some European capitals to rethink their efforts to “involve Trump).

Kiev calmly started preparing to go alone in anticipation of the withdrawal of the United States, by increasing the production of local weapons and intensifying talks with European allies on future aid.

Officials said it is unclear whether the United States would stop intelligence and military support for Ukraine – as Trump did temporarily in March – if the White House retracted diplomatic efforts.

“There are serious concerns in Ukraine that Trump may move away from the ceasefire negotiations,” said Olikander Merizko, a governing party deputy in Zelinski and head of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

He said: “The worst thing that can happen in relations between the United States, Ukraine is when Trump loses any interest in Ukraine,” which he added, “Putin may be seen as an implicit permission from the United States to escalate in the war.”

Additional reports by Andy Pointz in Brussels and Jay Chazan in New York