Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 summit, Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019

EA on BBC and India’s WION: Trump Abandons Ukraine

How Trump’s Call with Putin Betrayed Ukraine and Europe

Saturday’s Coverage: Europe Repels J.D. Vance’s Attack

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1825 GMT:

In a shift of position, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Ukraine and Europe must be involved in negotiations to end Russia’s three-year invasion.

But in an interview with CBS News, he indicated that the initial talks would still be directly with the Russians in Saudi Arabia.

He said of last week’s call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin:

Now, obviously it has to be followed up by action, so the next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not. Ultimately, one phone call does not make peace.

He continued:

Ultimately, it will reach a point when you are — if it’s real negotiations, and we’re not there yet, but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they’re the one that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well, and they’ve contributed to this effort.

We’re just not there yet. We really aren’t, but hopefully we will be, because we’d all like to see this war end.

UPDATE 1223 GMT:

Air defenses have downed 95 of 143 drones launched by Russia on 10 regions overnight, with another 46 lost to electronic counter-measures.

The Russians also fired two ballistic missiles from occupied Crimea.

In the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, one person was injured and a thermal power plant, five apartment buildings, several stores, and a restaurant damaged.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal initally said the damage to the power plant cut heat to 46,000 customers. President Volodymyr Zelensky later posted that more than 100,000 people were affected.

This is yet another clear demonstration that Russians are waging war against our people and against life itself in Ukraine. And they are fighting vilely, without easing the pressure. Those who genuinely seek peace and prepare for negotiations do not act this way.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said emergency services are doing “everything possible” to restore heat to buildings, schools, and hospitals. Authorities have set up 67 “invincibility points” in the city, and three modular boiler houses have been connected to healthcare facilities.

“This was a deliberate attempt to leave people without heat in subzero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe,” Shmyhal said.

UPDATE 1205 GMT:

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski is trying to maintain some optimism about direct US-Russia talks over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

General Kellogg [Trump’s envoy to Ukraine] has presented to me personally and to the circle of European allies, the United States’ negotiating tactics.

I will not reveal them here. They raise some hopes. They are unorthodox, but we wish them luck.

Sikorski pushed back on the proposal for European Union armed forces to cover the withdrawal of US support, despite Ukraine President’s Volodymyr Zelensky appeal on Saturday.

“We should be careful with this term because people understand different things,” Sikorski said. “If you understand by it the unification of national armies, it will not happen.”

He asserted, “I have been an advocate for Europe, for the European Union, to develop its own defense capabilities.”

However, he said Warsaw would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine: “Poland’s duty to NATO is to protect the eastern flank, i.e. its own territory.”

UPDATE 0859 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has played up to the Trump Administration in a lengthy post, hailing a “good call” with Donald Trump, meetings with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and a forthcoming visit by Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg to Kyiv.

Our teams are working throughly and in detail on a special agreement between our countries—one that will certainly strengthen both America and Ukraine. We are committed to making it a real success, exactly as we agreed.

UPDATE 0848 GMT:

A European diplomat has summarized the Trump Administration’s approach, “It appears Europe is going to be asked to police a deal that it had no direct hand in negotiating. In the meantime, Donald Trump is seeking to take 50% control of Ukraine’s rare minerals.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented a draft contract, in which the Administration would get the minerals in return for past US aid, to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday:

I did not allow the ministers to sign the agreement because, in my opinion, it’s not ready to protect us, our interests.

There are no security guarantees.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the world is facing a “moment of truth”: “Everyone in the world has to decide whether they are on the side of the free world or on the side of those who are fighting against the free world.”

Saying Europe must be involved in negotiations, she explained that there can be “no long-term peace if there is no European peace”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Trump Administration will begin discussions with Russia in Saudi Arabia next week over Moscow’s three-year invasion of Ukraine, excluding Kyiv and its European allies.

Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid the foundation for the meeting in a call on Saturday. The Russian Foreign Ministry cheered that Trump had removed the “unilateral barriers” set by the Biden administration.

“The two sides expressed their mutual willingness to interact on pressing international issues, including the settlement around Ukraine,” the Ministry said in a statement that proclaimed agreement on regular contacts in preparation for a Trump-Putin meeting.

US officials, confirming Donald Trump’s earlier declaration, said Rubio; National Security Advisor Mike Waltz; and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will confer with Vladimir Putin’s representatives.

There was no mention that Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, will attend.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Kyiv had not been invited and said his officials will not engage with Russia before consultations with strategic partners.

Kellogg confirmed on Saturday that Trump was excluding Ukraine. The envoy said at the Munich Security Conference that he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”:

It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest.

And to my European friends, I would say: get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defense] spending.

Kellogg asserted that previous agreements between Ukraine and Russia failed because too many countries were involved in negotiations: “We are not going to get down that path.”

Emergency European Summit in Paris

With US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance using the Munich conference to assail Europe and declare the Administration’s withdrawal from European security, French President Emmanuel Macron will host an emergency summit of the continent’s leaders on Monday.

Zelensky said at Munich that it is time for the creation of a European defense force: “Our army alone is not enough, we need your support.”

He noted that the “old days” when the US supported Europe “just because it always had” are over.

The President implicitly responded to Trump:

We will never accept deals reached behind our backs, without our involvement….We cannot agree to a ceasefire without real security guarantees….

No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, no decisions about Europe without Europe. Europe must have a seat at the table.

He added that he would not take NATO membership for Ukraine off the table: “We need coordinated diplomacy….End of this war should be our first shared success.”

European leaders called for a rallying of support. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, said “Europe needs to talk less and do more”.

There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans. But this means that Europe needs to get its act together.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the Russian invasion would only be resolved if Ukrainian sovereignty is secured: “We will also not accept any solution that leads to a decoupling of European and American security. Only one person would benefit from this: President Putin.”

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted:

His Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski added, “President Trump has a method of operating which the Russians call razvedka boyem – reconnaissance through battle: you push and you see what happens, and then you change your position … and we need to respond.”

China Takes Advantage

China moved to take advantage. Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized to the Munich Security Conference that Beijing would support Europe’s role in negotiations:

As the war is taking place on European soil, it is all the more necessary for Europe to play its part for peace, to jointly address the root causes of the crisis, to find a balanced, effective and sustainable security framework, and to achieve long-term peace and stability in Europe.

Wang told European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas that China is ready to step up strategic communication with the bloc, enhance mutual understanding, and jointly bring more stability to the world.

The Foreign Minister also conferred with Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha and Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak: