Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a major concession for the sake of ending the war with Russia by agreeing to "temporarily give up" the Ukrainian territories held by the Russian army, but it is unlikely that he will receive the required security guarantees by joining NATO.
This is the assessment of many media and analysts in the European Union who convey that most European members have different ideas about security guarantees to Ukraine, which will be discussed today and tomorrow by the heads of NATO diplomacy.
The new head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kalas, stated during her first visit to Kiev that the European Union must help Kiev "as much as necessary" so that "Ukraine wins the war" and that some members of the Union are allegedly ready to send troops to Ukraine.
The French newspaper "Mond" states that "Europeans are looking for other solutions than putting under NATO protection the parts of Ukraine that were not occupied by Russian troops", and this is confirmed by the until recently NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who underlines that there are "other options for arming and supporting the Ukrainians". .
"Mond" adds that "diplomats in NATO have been suggesting for months that there is little chance that Ukraine will receive an invitation to join this military organization... several members of the Atlantic alliance, including America and Germany, have made it clear that they do not want to be drawn into war with Russia".
An analyst from the German website "Tageschau" points out that "the question of how to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine is raised in the context of the upcoming change of government in the United States of America."
"Donald Trump, as president, could try to force Ukraine and Russia to negotiate," Tagešau points out.
"Ukraine," adds the German site, "could threaten to suspend military aid in case of refusal, while Russian President Vladimir Putin could be pressured to sit down at the negotiating table by threatening to further increase military aid to Kiev."
But on the other side of the ocean, the newspaper "Washington Post" reports that "many American officials imagine that within a few months, Ukraine could be forced to enter into negotiations with Russia on the cessation of war with the renunciation of part of the territory."
The new high representative of the EU, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas, known for her extremely hard stance towards Moscow, admits that it is increasingly difficult to achieve unity in the EU regarding the strengthening of material support for Ukraine.
"This war has been going on for some time and," she says, "it's getting harder and harder to explain it to our fellow citizens."
The Polish weekly "Polska" writes that for Kiev "territorial integrity has long been a taboo, at least officially, although Ukrainian diplomats agreed that Donbass and Crimea cannot be recovered in the foreseeable future."
Analysts and media in the EU indicate that it is clear that Kiev has great difficulty in preventing further penetrations by Russian troops, that a harsh winter is on the way, and the Ukrainian army does not have enough manpower and weapons.
The Italian newspaper "Stampa" also says that this is "a recognition that another winter under bombs, cold and darkness is threatening... now for the first time more than half of Ukrainians have declared that they are in favor of a ceasefire and negotiations".
The Dutch newspaper "Volkskrant" concludes that "everything says that Europe must now prepare to be more directly involved in the security of Ukraine after the peace agreement".
Many media in the EU also reported the statement of the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, that in the current situation, Moscow does not accept a cease-fire because it believes that it would only give time to Kiev's western partners to arm and rehabilitate the Ukrainian army.
The reports, however, remind us that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to talk to the newly elected US President Donald Trump about ending the war in Ukraine.
Putin said that Kiev should give up its desire to join NATO, Russian sources unofficially reported that the Kremlin could agree to freeze the conflict along the front line.
Although Russia, as explained, will not accept Ukraine joining NATO or the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, it is open to discussing security guarantees for Kiev.
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