Follow us on social

||

Diplomacy Watch: Europe turns attention to GOP ticket

Moscow, Kyiv, also react to eventuality of Trump returning to White House

Reporting | QiOSK

Ambassadors from roughly 20 European countries are descending on the Republican National Convention this week, in an effort to win over leaders in the party who are skeptical of NATO and the European Union generally, but also of Washington’s continued commitment to funding Ukraine’s war effort.

“It’s our last-ditch pitch to the MAGA wing of the party,” one unnamed European official told Foreign Policy.

As the FP report notes, it is common for foreign diplomats to appear at both party’s conventions in election years. But, the report says there is “new level of urgency” this year, a sign both of the conventional wisdom that Donald Trump is the favorite to win the election, and of fears in Europe about what a second Trump presidency would mean for the transatlantic relationship.

The selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), a prominent Ukraine aid skeptic, as Trump’s running mate earlier this week led to a series of headlines in major media outlets about growing “panic,” “alarm,” and “anxiety” in European capitals.

The two combatants in the war are also apparently reading the tea leaves. Bloomberg reported last week that Kyiv was hoping to organize its next “peace summit” before November’s election, and that, contrary to earlier meetings, Russia may be invited — perhaps conveying a new sense of urgency in preparation for the eventuality of a Trump victory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that he was prepared to work with Trump and “not afraid” of Republicans winning the White House.

“We have bipartisan support and we have strong relations with the Republican part of the U.S. political system,” Zelenaky said during a press conference.

Russia, for its part, welcomed the news of a Trump-Vance ticket.

“He’s in favor of peace, in favor of ending the assistance that’s being provided,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said of Vance on Wednesday. “And we can only welcome that because that’s what we need — to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons. And then the war will end, and then we can look for solutions.”

Vance has been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy during his short Senate tenure, voting against aid packages and calling for negotiations.

“By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its precious military manpower, stop the bleeding and provide time for negotiations to commence,” he wrote in an April op-ed in the New York Times. “The White House has said time and again that it can’t negotiate with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. This is absurd. The Biden administration has no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war. The sooner Americans confront this truth, the sooner we can fix this mess and broker for peace.”

In other diplomatic news related to the war in Ukraine:

— Moscow offered a cautious response to Kyiv's potential invitation to a future peace conference. After initially saying they would reject the offer, comments from the Kremlin spokesman this week suggest that the door is not completely closed.

“The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all. So perhaps it is necessary to first understand what he means,” Dmitry Peskov said during a television interview on Monday, according to The Moscow Times.

— Trump would push for a rapid end to the war in Ukraine and has “well-founded plans” to accomplish this goal, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban, who has also urged a settlement to end the war and has opposed much of the EU’s support for Kyiv, has used the beginning of his six-month rotation as EU president to visit Zelensky, Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Trump to discuss how to end the war.

“Orbán’s description of Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine tallies with a policy paper on the conflict written by two allies for the former president who are expected to take senior national security roles in his administration if he wins November’s US election.” according to The Financial Times.

That plan, authored by former Trump national security council staffers Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz said that Washington should only continue to send aid to Ukraine on the condition that they participate in negotiations, while also threatening to increase support for Kyiv if Moscow refused to take part in talks.

— Almost 44% of Ukrainians believe that it is time for official negotiations with Russia to begin, according to a new poll from the Ukrainian online newspaper ZN.ua, compared to 35% who were opposed and 21% who remain undecided. This represented a significant uptick from a similar poll last year, in which only 23% indicated that they supported official talks, with 64% opposed.

At the same time, a large majority (83%) of respondents opposed Putin’s stated conditions for a ceasefire, while 61% said they were not prepared to make concessions to Russia in order to obtain a peace deal.

U.S. State Department news:

In a Tuesday press briefing, State Department spokesman Matt Miller was asked about the Trump ticket’s stance on the Ukraine war. Miller said he “shouldn’t respond to” what was happening on the campaign trail.

“I will instead just speak about our record and our record of support for Ukraine. And ultimately I think the question really comes down to not just what we support and what anyone else in public life supports, but what the American people support, and what we have seen is when it comes to Ukraine, the American people strongly support continued assistance to Ukraine,” he said. “They strongly support allowing Ukraine and helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s aggression.”








Diplomacy Watch: A peace summit without Russia
Diplomacy Watch: What’s the point of Swiss peace summit?
Reporting | QiOSK
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less
Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?
Top photo credit: Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?

Middle East

Many human rights organizations say it should shut down. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians at or around its aid centers. And yet, the U.S. has committed no less than $30 million toward the controversial, Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

As famine-like conditions grip Gaza, the GHF says it has given over 50 million meals to Palestinians at its four aid centers in central and southern Gaza Strip since late May. These centers are operated by armed U.S. private contractors, and secured by IDF forces present at or near them.

keep readingShow less
mali
Heads of state of Mali, Assimi Goita, Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, pose for photographs during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou//File Photo

Post-coup juntas across the Sahel face serious crises

Africa

In Mali, General Assimi Goïta, who took power in a 2020 coup, now plans to remain in power through at least the end of this decade, as do his counterparts in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. As long-ruling juntas consolidate power in national capitals, much of the Sahelian terrain remains out of government control.

Recent attacks on government security forces in Djibo (Burkina Faso), Timbuktu (Mali), and Eknewane (Niger) have all underscored the depth of the insecurity. The Sahelian governments face a powerful threat from jihadist forces in two organizations, Jama‘at Nusrat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin (the Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims, JNIM, which is part of al-Qaida) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The Sahelian governments also face conventional rebel challengers and interact, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in tension, with various vigilantes and community-based armed groups.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.