A careful selection of cast and roles and a clear strategy to avoid deadlocks. European leaders’ charm offensive on Donald Trump to foster Ukraine’s cause this week was hastily arranged but followed a scripted plan, say European sources.
France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer were among seven European leaders who accompanied Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on Monday for high-stakes talks with the US President.
“There’s truly never been anything like it,” Trump enthused in an interview Tuesday. “There’s never been such a group,” he told Fox News.
The summit came on the heels of a meeting between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which raised concerns in Europe that Kyiv would be pressured into making painful political and territorial concessions to Moscow.
With nine leaders sitting around a long wooden table at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the dynamics changed.
Trump began the discussions by greeting his guests with a few words before the cameras. “You look great with your tan,” he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, while Starmer was introduced as “my friend, doing really well”.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was told she was “probably more powerful than anyone else around this table”.
– ‘Well prepared, well coordinated’ –
Often criticised for their difficulties in communicating with Trump, the Europeans were hoping to steer the famously volatile US president closer to their position on the conflict, ahead of possible peace talks with Putin.
“We were well prepared and well coordinated,” Merz said after the meeting.
“I think that really appealed to the American president, in the sense that he noticed that we Europeans were speaking with one voice here.”
Preparations for the meeting began Saturday when Trump debriefed Zelensky on his Alaska talks.
The US president invited his Ukrainian counterpart to the White House and opened the door for a few European leaders to tag along, according to a European official.
The proposal was discussed in a series of calls between European capitals.
Some were wary of exposing themselves to an ambush in the Oval Office, the kind Zelensky suffered in February during his prior, explosive visit to the White House, according to the source.
A team bringing together the leaders of major European powers France, Germany, Italy and Britain was nevertheless put together and announced on Sunday morning.
Finland’s Alexander Stubb, who has befriended Trump playing golf and leading a country that shares a long border with Russia, was also included.
A few hours later, Zelensky made a detour to Brussels and appeared alongside von der Leyen, who completed the line-up with NATO’s head Mark Rutte.
– ‘Clumsy attempts’ –
Each had a pre-scripted role, according to one participant at the summit.
Rutte, who has long cultivated his relationship with Donald Trump, was responsible for starting discussions with Trump, the source said.
Each leader then addressed a different aspect of the conflict. Von der Leyen, a mother and grandmother, for example emphasised the plight of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces.
Whenever Trump seemed to get stuck on an issue, someone would chime in trying to present the matter from a different perspective and refocus the discussion, the source said.
In a semantic shift, some avoided using the word “ceasefire” — disliked by Trump who after meeting Putin has pivoted to seeking a full peace deal — calling for Russia to “stop the killing” instead.
Talk of security guarantees for Ukraine similarly deliberately saw the use of the vague term “presence”, the source said.
Whether such adjustments will help successfully resolve what promises to be an extremely difficult negotiation process on the future of Ukraine remains to be seen.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Europe’s “clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president” — a possible sign that Moscow is concerned about their impact.
