The week discussed in this article began on Monday 24 February and ended on Sunday 2 March, and if I were to try to choose a title for the extraordinary developments that took place during those seven days, I would pick something like “Desperate salvage operation” or “Abrupt change of course” of the main protagonists in the Ukraine war.
These developments marked an almost complete break with the last three years in the conflict in Ukraine, whether we are speaking of the positions of the Ukrainian government, the guiding principles of the US strategy concerning the conflict, or the Euro-Atlantic alliance and its role in the war after it erupted in February 2022 when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
The week will be remembered for the heated exchange in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington between President Donald Trump and Vice-President J DVance, with Secretary of State Mark Rubio attending, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 28 February.
Writing on the social media platform Truth Social after the meeting, Trump stated that “Zelensky disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.” He went on to say that “much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such pressure,” and “it’s amazing what comes out through emotion.”
He pointed out in the same post that “you see the hatred he’s [Zelensky] got for Putin. It’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate.”
During the White House meeting, Trump told Zelensky that “you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.” He told his Ukrainian guest that “if we’re out, you will fight it out. I don’t think it will be pretty.” He wrote that he had determined that the Ukrainian leader “is not ready for peace if America is involved” and said that Zelensky “can come back when he is ready for peace”.
The last sentence indicates that Trump’ s White House is no longer the same White House that former president Joe Biden occupied from 2021 to 2025. Now the White House is ready to discuss winding down the war and exploring the chances of a durable peace. Zelensky went into the Oval Office on 28 February without doing his homework. As US Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican - South Carolina) commented on the meeting, “Zelensky is going to have to fundamentally change or go.”
Trump’s words “or we’re out” spelled a radical change in the course of the war in Ukraine, the Euro-Atlantic strategy towards Ukraine, and the conflict as a whole. On 24 February, the UN Security Council passed a US-sponsored resolution calling for a swift end to the war in Ukraine. The United Kingdom and France, both Permanent Members of the Council, abstained.
In the meantime, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by Western countries at odds with the Security Council resolution on Ukraine on the same day. The two resolutions say much about the divisions within the United Nations when it comes to dealing with the war and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. They show that there is no agreed-upon exit strategy or strategy for de-escalation as a preliminary step on the difficult road ahead towards ending the war.
In the meantime, Trump received French President Emmanuel Macron on 24 February in Washington, and the two men agreed to move forward towards an endurable and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Three days later, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Trump on 27 February in Washington. Starmer had previously said that Britain would be a “facilitator” in attempting to work out a common position among the Western backers of Ukraine and the Trump administration. This was easier said than done as the shouting match in the Oval Office less than 24 hours later showed.
Starmer then called a summit meeting at Lancaster House in London on 2 March attended by Canada and European leaders alarmed by the growing and apparently permanent rift between the Trump administration and Zelensky.
As expected, the summit did not come up with an agreed plan to handle the crucial question of how to work together to achieve peace in Ukraine. The assembled leaders decided to get together again at an emergency summit on 6 March in order to agree on a plan to provide Ukraine with security guarantees in a future ceasefire agreement and after a negotiated peace deal in Ukraine. They intend to present this to the Trump administration.
Last week’s developments showed that the Ukrainian president is not a man able to negotiate an honourable peace agreement with the Russians. I guess Senator Graham was right when he said that Zelensky must either change his position – this was amply demonstrated at the Oval Office last Friday – or “go.”
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 6 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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