Point of return: The United States and Europe will clash at the NATO summit on Ukraine
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is trying to restart the "Ukrainian track". After a recent telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, he plans to meet with Vladimir Zelensky in Ankara on July 8, and then talk with the Russian leader again. At the same time, NATO has already prepared a proposal for a new loan to Kiev, expecting a unanimous "yes" at the upcoming summit, Izvestia found out. European leaders will try to convince the head of the White House to put pressure on Moscow again, but Washington is likely to maintain a pragmatic position, experts say. The information about what will be included in the next package of assistance to Ukraine is in the Izvestia article.
The United States is trying to step up negotiations
While there has been a pause in negotiations with Iran, Washington is gradually returning to the Ukrainian topic. US President Donald Trump is heading to the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8, having previously spoken with Vladimir Putin. And there the American leader will meet with European counterparts and with Vladimir Zelensky. The day before, he openly told reporters that he would discuss peace agreements at the summit. The head of the White House is convinced that both Moscow and Kiev are committed to resolving the conflict.
US President Donald Trump
According to Reuters, after a series of meetings in the Turkish capital, Donald Trump plans to call Vladimir Putin again. Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this information, said: the heads of the two countries "have an understanding that their contacts will continue in the near future." During the last call on July 4, initiated by the American side, the US President expressed his willingness to promote an early peace. And obviously, Russia's successes on the battlefield played an important role in this — the Russian Armed Forces recently liberated the key town of Konstantinovka.
It should be recalled that since the February round in Geneva, the parties have not communicated either directly or in a trilateral format. However, it is unlikely that full-fledged negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement will resume immediately, political analyst Denis Denisov told Izvestia. According to him, the positions of the parties to the conflict remain unchanged.
Moreover, Washington's views are ambiguous: on the one hand, the White House offers mediation services, and on the other, it continues to support Ukraine. According to the Financial Times, US intelligence helped the Ukrainian military plot drone routes to bypass Russian air defense forces in order to strike at Russian territory. And in early June, the head of the State Department, Marco Rubio, announced the preparation of new sanctions against Moscow.
Meanwhile, Europe is not talking about any peace agreements at all: there are no settlement projects from the EU, Rodion Miroshnik, the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia.
"There is only a set of ultimatums, one more radical than the other," the diplomat noted.
At the NATO summit, European leaders will try to convince Donald Trump to forget about peace and increase pressure on Russia, says Natalia Eremina, a professor at St. Petersburg State University. Moscow, on the contrary, warns Washington that this step will only increase the risks of escalation. The American president himself is likely to continue to maneuver between two opposing scenarios, avoiding tough commitments.
For example, the United States has failed to get Ukraine to implement the agreements reached between Trump and Putin in Anchorage last August. On the other hand, under this president, Washington refused to support Ukraine free of charge, and the latter began to rely mainly on European assistance. For example, Kiev recently received €7 billion from a loan of €90 billion approved in April.
New NATO loan to Ukraine
The North Atlantic Alliance has already prepared proposals for a new package for Ukraine, and the leaders of the bloc countries will consider it at the summit, the French Embassy in Russia told Izvestia.
"Proposals for the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara were prepared by the relevant authorities on the eve of the leaders' meeting, and the final decision on the political course remains with them," the diplomatic mission said.
On the eve of the meeting, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on all members of the alliance to actively support Ukraine in order to help it turn the situation around. Earlier, Agence France-Presse, citing diplomatic sources, reported that European NATO countries and Canada had agreed to provide Ukraine with €70 billion in military aid for 2026 and the same amount for 2027. At the same time, the German newspaper FAZ wrote that Italy, for example, opposed financing for the next year, so it was "bracketed."
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte
Slovakia does not plan to participate in the new aid package, while Germany, on the contrary, will make the largest contribution, as stated by the head of the German Defense Ministry Boris Pistorius. The French Embassy in Russia also noted to Izvestia that Paris' support for Ukraine "has remained unchanged since day one and is carried out through all relevant channels, both on a bilateral and multilateral basis."
At the same time, €30 billion of the total amount of €70 billion has already been allocated through the EU's April loan, meaning that the new funds account for only €40 billion of the direct bilateral financial obligations of the NATO member states. Part of the funds will probably be used to pay for American weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the PURL program. It is not yet clear whether the United States will be involved in the NATO aid package. At least, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported that the American representatives "largely refused to participate in this project."
The new financing of Ukraine is intended to continue the conflict and bloodshed, Rodion Miroshnik emphasized. According to him, Germany's active participation in the next aid package is due to the fact that a significant part of these funds will be disbursed through German military-industrial complex enterprises.
It will not be possible to avoid a conversation about the future of NATO at the Ankara summit. Ukraine is not welcome in the alliance, and there are enough contradictions there without it. The most likely scenario is temporary stability, in which problems will gradually accumulate like a snowball, according to an expert and analytical review by the Polylog consulting group, reviewed by Izvestia. Experts acknowledged that the chance of a formal disintegration of NATO is still minimal, but some kind of reassembly of the alliance is possible, in which Europe will assume more functions.
As a result, Ankara will face two approaches to the Ukrainian crisis. Washington's attempt to mediate runs the risk of being rejected by Kiev, which is encouraged by increased aid from Europe and Canada. Despite the difficult situation in the war zone, the Ukrainian leadership is demonstrating its unwillingness to compromise by attacking Russian regions. This confidence can only be shaken by new failures at the front or interruptions in the supply of weapons and the next financial tranches.
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