European leaders are waiting to see what results of the latest discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump while the leaders meet in Alaska on Friday.
“Even now, when your president has clearly stated that he wants this war to end and in fact offers the opportunity for Putin to talk, still every day and night, until those conversations, he continues to bomb citizens,” she added. “He continues to destroy Ukrainian land.”
President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes his hand at the start of a meeting in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file)
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The United Nations confirmed on Wednesday that Russian attacks in Ukraine last month led to the civilian victim rates that were not seen since Putin launched his invasion for the first time in 2022.
“For the second month in a row, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine will be a new three-year high point,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN human monitoring mission in Ukraine, in a statement.
“Only the first three months after the Russian Federation launched the entire invasion of Ukraine on a full scale, saw more killed and injured than in the past month.”
Friday’s meeting between Trump and Putin is important because it is not only the first time that Putin has returned to the US in a decade. It is the first time that an American leader has met De Kremlin chef since he launched the invasion of Ukraine 3½ years ago.
But skepticism about whether the meeting will yield all results, remains high, especially after several apparently positive calls between the couple earlier this year, which only amounted to a frustrated Trump and Putin’s constant bombing of Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier walks with children who are destroyed by the war against Russia, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, 4 April 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“We in Europe, we know on our own skin that Russia, and Putin specifically, only delivers violence,” said Lithuanian Minister of Defense. “They break every deal they have ever closed. They retain that imperial ambition of non -respecting international rules that do not respect the boundaries of independent countries.
“That is why we find what we find is really important for President Trump to see himself, there is even a smallest wish for Putin’s peace, or if that is not,” Sakaliene added. “And if that is not the case, I am really sure that your president, as a person with an enormous experience with dealing with very different people, can draw his own conclusions.”
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Trump still has to describe how he will respond if his meeting with Putin turns out to be fruitless in promoting a road to a ceasefire -although he said on Wednesday that there would be “very serious consequences” if he decided that Putin is not serious about peace.
Trump promised to start with the start of the Russian war box from 8 August. By taking 100% rates on the most important export of Moscow, oil.
But only India was affected with extra economic consequences after Washington escalated his rate percentage to 50%, which, although still one of the highest rates that were implemented on an American trading partner, the 100% rate of originally endangered.
Vehicles in flames on an oil depot after rockets have hit the site in an area that was governed by Russian-supported separatist troops in Makiivka, Eastern Ukraine, 4 May. (AP)
China, the other top importer of Russian oil, hunted American secondary rates after Beijing and Washington have pushed the deadline until November while they continue to levy trade agreements, which means that China has a rate of 30%.
Even in the midst of the uncertainty, Sakaliene said that she and other NATO bondmen will remain hopeful that this meeting will take quickly action in the termination of the war, either by an actual peace scheme or more action against Moscow by the US next to the European allies.
Lithuanian Minister of Defense Dovile Sakaliene, the center and American officers attend a sacred mass for the four American soldiers who were missing during exercises by the United States on the Pabrade training area in the Cathedral Basilica in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania, March 30, 2025. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)
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“[I think that, for all of us, it’s going to be a difficult weekend,” the defense minister said. “But what really gives hope to us is that President Trump said very clearly that he is not going to be lenient if Putin continues this war.
“And if, after Friday, Putin continues to bomb Ukraine, then he’s going to react as we understand, really with the full force of justice.” Â
