Only the Ukrainian people, leaders, and government can decide the country’s future, emphasized Latvia’s new Ambassador to Ukraine, Andrejs Pildegovičs, in an interview on TV3’s program “900 Seconds”, commenting on Friday’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
“We are supportive and stand in solidarity, but the difficult decisions about their country’s fate must be made by the Ukrainians themselves,” Pildegovičs said.
To assess whether the Trump-Putin meeting produced any results, the ambassador urged waiting for the outcome of Monday’s scheduled meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and European leaders.
As Trump himself said, nothing is decided until everything is decided and every detail is in place, the ambassador recalled.
“By nature, I am an optimist, but right now I am very cautious, because
we know that Russia has not changed, we see Putin’s aggressive rhetoric, and we know how often Russia has lied,”
Pildegovičs added.
He stressed that lasting security guarantees are one of the central issues for ending the war, because a temporary ceasefire will mean nothing if aggression resumes later.
One of diplomacy’s most important tasks, he said, is to find the right parameters to make guarantees credible and effective.
If NATO membership—which would provide full-fledged security guarantees—is not on the table, then a long-term alternative must be found. This could include, for example, the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine, the ambassador noted.
“There are many options, but Ukrainian leaders can only agree to something that does not repeat the fate of the Budapest Memorandum, when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons and received soft guarantees, which ended with Russia’s invasion,” Pildegovičs stressed.
He also underlined the importance of keeping the U.S. president actively engaged
in resolving these issues.
As reported, alongside Zelensky, Monday’s White House meeting with Trump will also include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The meeting comes three days after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
Upon arriving in Washington, Zelensky thanked Trump on platform X for the invitation and expressed hope to end the war as soon as possible. Zelensky emphasized that Russia must be the one to stop it first.
“We all equally want to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting. Not like years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our east—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when in 1994 Ukraine was given supposed ‘security guarantees,’ but they did not work,” Zelensky reminded.
“Russia must end this war it started.
And I hope that together, our strength with America and our European friends will force Russia into a true peace,” the Ukrainian president added.
Meanwhile, Trump stated on his platform Truth Social that Zelensky could stop the war with Russia by giving up Crimea and NATO membership.
“Ukrainian President Zelensky can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to, or he can continue fighting. Remember how it all started. No taking back Obama’s Crimea (12 years ago, without a single shot!) and no Ukraine joining NATO. Some things never change!!!” Trump wrote.
CNN notes that Trump’s statement about the impossibility of reclaiming Crimea and Ukraine’s NATO membership reflects the pressure Zelensky is expected to face during the White House talks.
“Two of the conditions Trump listed—Ukraine giving up Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and agreeing never to join NATO—are among the terms set out by Putin to end the war,” CNN reported.
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