Trump’s security plan for Europe can be “dangerous,” says Zelensky

O Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today warned that the new security plan for Europe proposed by the US administration can be “dangerous”, since Russia does not demonstrate a desire to end the war.

In an interview with CNN, Zelensky criticised the intention to discuss a new European security architecture with Russia, considering it “dangerous” to move in that direction when Moscow does not demonstrate a willingness to find a solution to the war in Ukraine.

This “approach is more dangerous for the European Union (EU) than for us”, since Ukraine does not belong to the Community bloc or NATO, Zelensky also pointed out, however, that it also poses a threat to his country because “we all live in Europe”.

“We do not want a second Yalta,” he said, in a reference to the Yalta Conference held in 1945, in which the leaders of the three great powers of the time – Soviet leader Josef Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill – negotiated the post-war configuration of Europe.

“We are not prepared for such a format. We don't want to be divided by Russia. And, of course, sovereignty and territorial integrity are fundamental issues for any independent country. If we want to be a free and democratic country, we need at least our neighbours to respect our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he stressed.

After President Donald Trump announced a “great and beautiful agreement” on Ukraine, which could also involve “all Europe”, his son-in-law and sent to the negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, Jared Kushner, explained on social network X that “an important debate is underway with several European leaders on the need to establish a broader European security architecture that will help create the necessary conditions for lasting peace.”.

Jared Kushner explained that the United States is studying five objectives for a possible new security pact between Europe and Russia: permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communication channels, increased military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce the risks of escalation and a lasting framework for Europe’s long-term security and stability.

The United States wants “any agreement to fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independent decision-making capacity of each nation, so that each country retains authority over its own security and alliances, without any state having the right to veto the sovereign decisions of another.”.

In this context, NATO will remain a central pillar of European collective defence, and the US initiative “will sit in existing institutions and commitments,” Kushner explained.

The proposal takes up commitments previously made by the Soviet Union and subsequently by Russia, through documents such as the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the Paris Charter for a New Europe, the Treaty on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and the Vienna Document of 1990 on confidence and security measures.