After his telephone conversation with future US President Donald Trump, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) expressed confidence that Europe and the US will continue to pull together in their support for Ukraine. “But of course with a clear perspective that there is a fair peace for Ukraine, which can defend its sovereignty, and that the killing ends,” Scholz added at a press conference after the EU summit in Brussels. “It’s very clear to me that we have to do everything we can to make this possible.”
Even with a President Trump, a coordinated Ukraine policy with the USA is needed. “My impression: That’s also quite possible.” It was the Chancellor’s second conversation with Trump since his election victory on November 5th. On January 20th, the Republican is to be sworn in in Washington as the successor to Joe Biden, under whose leadership the USA has become Ukraine’s most important ally and largest arms supplier. It is rather unusual that Scholz spoke to the future president for the second time before taking office.
Olaf Scholz: Ground troops “not an issue at all”
Scholz once again expressed his opposition to the idea of a peacekeeping force in Ukraine in the event of a possible ceasefire. A concrete design of a security architecture “is not really worth discussing at the moment,” he said. “But it has to be something that, from our point of view, is also structured in a transatlantic manner,” he simply emphasized. But there was “no discussion about ground troops or anything like that because that’s not an issue at all.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who also attended the EU summit, had previously called on European leaders to join new French plans for an international troop presence in Ukraine. It is crucial that Europe makes a significant contribution to security guarantees for his country, Zelensky said in a speech at the summit. Ukraine supports the Paris initiative for a military contingent in Ukraine within the framework of these guarantees and calls on other partners to join this effort. “This will help end the war,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president did not provide any details about the French initiative. It is likely that he refers to considerations for a peacekeeping force to secure a possible ceasefire. A troop presence for military training programs for the Ukrainian armed forces is also conceivable. These could also represent a security guarantee for Ukraine.
What does Trump do after the inauguration?
The background to the current discussions about a possible peacekeeping force for Ukraine is the scenario that Trump, as US President, may try to pressure Ukraine and Russia into ceasefire negotiations. In return, he could threaten to stop Ukraine’s military aid if it refused.
Zelensky painted a bleak picture in the event that Trump were to withdraw support altogether: “It is very difficult to support Ukraine without US help, and that is exactly what we will discuss with President Trump when he is in the White House .”
No Christmas peace at the front
At the end of the EU summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban renewed his proposal for a ceasefire “at least over the three Orthodox Christmas holidays”. “We have to save lives,” he said. He also doesn’t understand why Russia and Ukraine couldn’t exchange 700 prisoners for the festival.
Zelensky had already rejected both. The Hungarian proposal was Christmassy, he said – but Orban was not suitable as a mediator because of his proximity to Moscow. Ukraine has already brought 3,500 of its prisoners home in negotiations with Russia and will continue to do so.
Hungary has so far only had peripheral involvement in this exchange; important players include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. A ceasefire fails because both sides fear that the other side could improve its position over time.
At the EU summit, Orban refused to agree to the extension of the Russia sanctions, which expire at the end of January. As the DPA news agency learned from several participants at the top meeting in Brussels, the Hungarian told the other heads of state and government that he still had to think about the matter. He doesn’t want to make a decision until after Trump’s inauguration. Orban had repeatedly criticized the sanctions as useless and bad for the European economy.
Russians continue to advance in Donbass
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military continued to report heavy fighting from the east of the country. Russian soldiers have captured the village of Trudove south of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military blog “DeepState” reported. The General Staff in Kiev named Kurakhove and Pokrovsk as the main focus of the fighting on Thursday evening.
Ukrainian troops are also under pressure in the bridgehead they still hold in the Russian Kursk region. There were 48 Russian attacks there on Thursday alone, the General Staff said. The Russian army is also deploying North Korean soldiers near Kursk. A spokesman for the US Department of Defense said on Thursday that the Pentagon believed that several hundred North Koreans had been injured or killed.
