The statement released by the leaders of Europe’s war-faction on Dec. 15—leaders of 10 of the 27 EU countries, plus European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa—was designed to completely subvert President Trump’s peace initiative with a ‘kiss of death’ or, failing that, encourage Ukraine’s acting president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to reject any compromises and go full flight-forward against Russia. Earlier, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had met with Zelenskyy for seven-and-a-half hours of meetings in Berlin—importantly without any Europeans present—before the war-faction swarmed in. During the ensuing extended dinner gathering after the Europeans joined in, President Trump called in to talk, and the evident gap in their positions apparently resulted in the crafting of the late evening statement.
After noting that they and the U.S. are both “committed to work together” on security and economic recovery for Ukraine, the statement lists those “commitments,” implying falsely that they are shared with the U.S. They include a laundry list of maximalist demands such as “a European-led ‘multinational force Ukraine’ [MFU]... supported by the US” which will include European troops “operating inside Ukraine.” (Curiously, it actually states that this MFU is to be manned “from willing nations within the framework of the Coalition of the Willing”! That is, apparently some of the willing coalition are not as willing as advertised.)
The European additions to any peace talks are a non-starter. Russia has repeatedly said it will never accept European troops deployed into Ukraine.
