Open the newsletter to watch the White House for free

Your guide to what the American elections 2024 mean to Washington and the world

Russia used the first round of talks with the United States on ending the war in Ukraine to demand the withdrawal of NATO forces from the eastern wing of the coalition, which caused anxiety in European capitals that the Trump administration could fulfill by closing a peace agreement.

Christian Diakonko, Chief of Staff of the Romanian President and Defense and National Security Adviser, said on Wednesday that the American delegation rejected Moscow’s request, but there were no guarantees that Washington would not eventually provide this privilege to Vladimir Putin.

“As much as I understand, the situation can change from one hour to another or from day to day,” Diakonko told ANTENA3 TV, referring to Donald Trump’s criticism of the Ukrainian leader and his concessions to Russia even before the start of the talks.

Diaconescu confirmed that the Russian delegation of talks in Riyadh earlier this week “failed to persuade the Americans” to withdraw from NATO and that the UK and France leaders next week will seek to persuade Trump not to surrender this request.

However, concessions to Moscow from the Trump administration in recent days – from excluding NATO membership in Ukraine, to promising to normalize US relations with Russia – governments are made in the coalition lines of the eastern nervous facade over the intentions of the US President.

A senior official from the region told the Financial Times that they were not sure that their message was going through. “We have seen widely the capital at different levels, [I’m] I am not sure what leaks to Trump. So the risks and attention remains that Russia is deceiving the capital to something through a boost on Ukraine. “

The Russian president has always sought to restore his country’s influence in Eastern Europe, similar to the agreement reached by the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II at a peace conference in Yala.

The withdrawal of NATO forces from the former Soviet and communist countries that joined the coalition in the late 1990s was one of the main demands of Putin to the United States before its comprehensive attack on Ukraine was launched in 2022.

Trump raised more allies when he repeated Putin’s claim that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO was the cause of his invasion. This week, the US President described Ukrainian President Folodimir Zelinski as “a dictator without elections” – warning him not to lose his country soon if he does not agree to a peace agreement – and closed European capitals from early peace negotiations.

Diakonko said that Romanian President Elie Paweland met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday and came out of the condemnation that European leaders in their contacts with the United States would emphasize the need for any security arrangements affecting the region.

Diakonko added that the current situation is “very complicated and dangerous.” “You can bet that we will fight until the last minute [this] It does not happen. ”

Young generations have warned of Europeans who have not previously experienced life behind the iron curtain that this moment could represent a return to “the gates of hell”.

“Gasoline, poverty lines and women who die in hospitals and people who do not heat.

Sando Valentin Matteo, a Roman defense analyst, former maritime commander and intelligence officer, said that Europe was again at a historic crossroads.

“Europe knows 1938,” referring to Munich Mitha, who gave Adolf Hitler a part of Czechoslovakia but failed to stop the Second World War.

Matteo said the continent will not allow another to undermine its security arrangements. He added, “Europe will stand,” if the United States is withdrawing its security guarantees, which will be “the worst scenario.”

“We have the ancient Russian idea of ​​removing the United States from European security engineering, leaving Eastern Europe in [Russia’s] Getting rid – their field of influence. “Until now the American answer was no – but I am convinced that Russia would continue. This was their strategy, their main policy after Putin reached power.”

The government in Warsaw has yet insists that it has no reason to fear Trump Poland, while urging its European partners to respond to Trump’s call to enhance the defense of the continent. “The withdrawal of the American forces is a scenario that Poland is not thinking,” said Defense Minister WłDysław Kosiniak-kamysz on Wednesday.

But Trump’s handling of talks with Russia rocked the Polish policy before the presidential elections in May, and it raises the right -wing politicians who have long claimed that they were strong and strong in Russia as well as strong allies in Washington.

“This is now more than Yalta to Ukraine more than Poland, but we know that if Trump is able to sell Ukraine to Russia, Warsaw University,” said Bartus Readlaski, a professor of politics at Cardinal Stephen and Yuszki.

Additional reports by Rafael Minand in Warsaw