Editorial. War in Ukraine: kyiv and the Europeans at the crossroads

This Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Donald Trump at the White House, in the same Oval Office where, on February 28, he was humiliated on global television, forced to leave Washington as a pariah. A scene of rare violence that contrasts with the red carpet, the applause, and all the diligence that the American president demonstrated on Friday in Alaska with regard to Vladimir Putin . In Anchorage, between the two leaders, a peace plan was outlined: Ukraine would have to cede the entire Donbass, in exchange for security guarantees. Never mind that it was invaded. Never mind this immoral inversion of values. If that is the case, Donald Trump can believe it: the Nobel Peace Prize for the strongest is within his grasp.

After three and a half years of war, Kiev and its European allies are up against the wall. Because, on the ground, it's the Ukrainian army that's faltering. So, is it better to make a bad deal or risk total defeat in a few months? If Volodymyr Zelensky refuses, Donald Trump could cut off American aid. However, Europe, whose defense industry is already running at full capacity, will not be able to compensate.

"Trump can believe it: the Nobel Peace Prize for the strongest is within his grasp."

Without predicting Ukraine's position, this Russian aggression, coupled with the return of Donald Trump, will at least have awakened Europe to a major issue: its inability to ensure its own security. While a potential peace, even if painful for Ukraine, could succeed, this strategic surge driven by all-out rearmament from Berlin to Warsaw, via Paris and Helsinki, cannot end with the end of the fighting. Because for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Europe is nothing more than a target. To be taxed for one, to be destabilized for the other. And it would be illusory to believe that once peace is signed in Ukraine, the lovebirds from Anchorage will not return to better intentions toward it. Therefore, it is to be welcomed that the main European leaders are accompanying Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington on Monday.

At this moment, as a new redistribution of the cards takes shape, General de Gaulle's decision to make France a nuclear power resonates once again. We must recall the doubts he expressed aloud in 1959 in the face of American-Soviet rivalry: "Who can say whether, in the future [...], the two powers that would have a monopoly on nuclear weapons would not agree to divide the world?" Here we are.