By Athena Papakosta

The president of Ukraine arrived in Brussels yesterday, Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky with the aim of strengthening the aid of its European allies to Kiev in view of the imminent return of Donald Trump back to the White House.

Its new General Secretary NATOMark Rutte, underlined that Ukraine’s partners intend to continue supplying the country with weapons systems to support its defense in ongoing war with Russia. As he explained, the West’s priority is to make sure that Kiev “will be in the best possible position one day, when it decides to start peace talks” with Moscow.

For his part, the Ukrainian president emphasized the need for a unified European position and underlined the priority of securing more air defense systems.

Any assurances of continued military support to Ukraine are critical for the Ukrainian armed forces, as US President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear, according to the Wall Street Journal, that his administration will expect European to lead the delivery of aid to Kiev, but also to oversee any future ceasefire.

Counting down to January 20, when Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Europeans are trying to catch up.

OR informal mini-Synod on Wednesday night in which, in addition to Zelensky and Rutte, the president of France was scheduled to participate, Emmanuel Macronthe chancellor of Germany, Olaf Solzthe Prime Minister of Italy, Georgia Melonithe Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, David Lammythe president of Poland, Andrei Duda as well as the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa but also the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenaimed to coordinate the European response.

At the moment, what Europe seems to want is to convince Donald Trump that when Kiev comes to the table of peace talks, it will be in a position of strength, also stressing that a bad deal on Ukraine will expose it as weak. the newly elected president in the eyes of China. The Europeans also want to show Trump that they are not sitting idly by, but are stepping up their support for Ukraine.

From the context of their actions, there is also a discussion about what Europe should perhaps do in the event that a ceasefire is reached between Ukraine and Russia, such as deploying a peacekeeping force in order to prevent another Russian invasion in the future invasion.

At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky gave an interview to the French Le Parisien where he admitted for the first time that the Ukrainian army is not able to expel the Russian troops from the territories they have occupied in Crimea and the east of the country. He explained that, in this context, diplomacy is the only remaining option to convince Moscow to withdraw its army from these areas, stressing that Kiev will never recognize Russian sovereignty in eastern Ukraine.

As the correspondent of the British Sky News network explains, the developments in Brussels in the current 24 hours are of special importance because firstly Rutte himself is now talking about negotiation and secondly because Zelensky is slowly recognizing the need to reach an agreement through diplomacy, making it clear that Kiev will not cede territory to Moscow. Now, what will these negotiations look like, when will they take place, and what kind of deal are we talking about? Unknown. One only has to try to think about what is acceptable to Putin, Zelensky, the EU and NATO. The only sure thing? It is a difficult mission that today seems impossible.