Kyiv’s allies are scrambling to avoid a blowup with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit as he emerges from the Iran crisis and turns his attention back to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump was all smiles as he arrived in France a day after his birthday, telling reporters that everything was “nice” before heading into a cordial meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Then, the U.S. president vowed to use his newfound bandwidth to settle the war in Ukraine, which he had previously promised to end within 24 hours of taking office, during the 2024 election campaign.
“Now that this is finished, we are gonna be focusing on that and see if we can get that one done,” Trump said, sitting alongside Macron. “Twenty-five thousand people a month are dying, mostly soldiers. That shouldn’t happen.”
Those words aren’t reassuring for Ukraine’s main backers in Europe.
Behind the scenes, European officials fear that the U.S. president — freed from having to manage the Iran crisis day-to-day — could try to retake control of the Ukraine peace talks, leave them on the sidelines and derail their strategy of putting maximal pressure on Russia and fully supporting Ukraine.
