Matthew Mpoke Bigg
In the last 10 days, Ukraine has seen one of the most intense bursts of diplomatic activity since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than three years ago.
First, President Trump held a summit in Alaska with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Days later, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and seven other European leaders met with Mr. Trump in Washington.
Now that the dust has settled, here’s a look at what is next for Ukraine, both on and off the battlefield.
What’s next for diplomacy?
The summits ended with no peace deal or cease-fire.
Despite optimistic statements, they also did not appear to generate much momentum toward a resolution of the war — and major sticking points remain. There seems to be little immediate prospect of a summit between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky, even though the Ukrainian president has repeatedly said he would be ready for one, calling it the only way to negotiate an end to the war. After the Alaska summit, the White House said that Mr. Putin had agreed to Mr. Trump’s effort to broker such a meeting.
But the White House has since sounded a more pessimistic note. And Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that no meeting was planned and, anyway, an agenda would need to be agreed on first.
On the U.S. side, Mr. Trump followed up the meetings by giving Secretary of State Marco Rubio the task of proposing security guarantees for Ukraine if and when hostilities end. Mr. Zelensky said on Monday that American and Ukrainian teams would meet at the end of the week to discuss the possibility of future talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
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