NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Morning opening: More questions than answers
Jakub Krupa
Three days on from the White House summit on Ukraine, the signals are no longer as positive as US president Donald Trump would have wanted us to believe.
Overnight, Politico reported that the US undersecretary of defence for policy, Elbridge Colby, told European allies that the US would only offer minimal guarantees for Ukraine, with most burden left for Europe to pick up.
A Nato diplomat briefered on the talks told Politico: “The US is not fully committed to anything.”
Any prospects of making further diplomatic progress also appeared to have stalled, with numerous Russian officials and diplomats toning down the expectations for both ceasefire and a potential Zelenskyy-Putin meeting.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that any meeting would need to be prepared “with the utmost care”, while the country’s deputy representative to the UN, Dmitry Polansky, told the BBC that “it shouldn’t be a meeting for the sake of a meeting.”
Or to translate to plain English: thanks but no, thanks.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to these stalling tactics this morning, calling for a “strong reaction” from the US if Putin refuses to meet him, as discussed with Trump.
The Ukrainian president also appeared to play down the prospect of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, hosting the potential summit with Putin, calling it “challenging.”
Hungary has long been Russia’s loudest advocate within the European Union, often looking to delay or block the sanctions, and criticising Kyiv and other capitals for their approach to the war. Budapest is also blocking Ukraine’s accession process to the EU.
Zelenskyy also pointed out another round of Russian attacks overnight, including against an American enterprise in Zakarpatia region, which injured 15 people.
He said the attacks were “as if nothing had changed at all.”
“A response is needed to this. There is still no signal from Moscow that they are really going to go into meaningful negotiations and end this war. Pressure is needed. Strong sanctions, strong tariffs.”
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Thursday, 21 August 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Drone that fell in Poland ‘probably’ came from Belarus, prosecutor says
If you followed the blog on Wednesday, you know we looked at an incident with an allegedly Russian drone that crossed into Poland and exploded in a cornfield, some 100 km from Polish-Belarusian border.
A regional prosecutor issued an update today, saying that “there is a very high probability … that the object probably came from Belarus.”
That marks a slight shift of tone, as on Wednesday officials claimed the drone was launched from Russia.
But deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki said this morning that a protest note would be given to Russia later today, Reuters reported.
European leaders scrambled to shield Ukraine in high-stakes Trump talks – but did they?
Ashifa Kblockam
European community affairs correspondent
Days after the unprecedented flurry of diplomacy, questions continue to swirl over what – if anything – might come out of it. On Monday, Trump and several European leaders, said Putin had agreed to face-to-face talks with Zelenskyy in the coming weeks.
Moscow, however, has yet to confirm that any such meeting – which would be the first since Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago – is being planned, with a Kremlin aide saying only that Putin and Trump discussed the idea of “raising the level of representatives” in the Ukraine talks.
Trump had also indicated a willingness to be part of security guarantees for Kyiv if there was a deal to end fighting. But the exact nature of those guarantees remains to be seen, with Trump later ruling out the possibility of the US putting troops on the ground in Ukraine and instead floating that Washington could provide air support.
Concerns also continue to linger over what exactly Trump proposed in Alaska and what, if anything, Putin agreed to during the near three-hour meeting. As Pjotr Sauer, a Guardian Russian affairs reporter, noted, some fear Trump may have overstated the outcome and misjudged Moscow’s willingness to compromise.
‘Let’s first hear what Russia is willing to do,’ Zelenskyy says on territorial concessions
In further comments from Zelenskyy this morning, reported by Reuters, he said it was unclear what concessions regarding territory Moscow was willing to make to end the war.
Trump has previously said Kyiv and Moscow will both need to cede land.
“To discuss what Ukraine is willing to do, let’s first hear what Russia is willing to do,” Zelenskiy said. “We do not know that.“
Morning opening: More questions than answers
Jakub Krupa
Three days on from the White House summit on Ukraine, the signals are no longer as positive as US president Donald Trump would have wanted us to believe.
Overnight, Politico reported that the US undersecretary of defence for policy, Elbridge Colby, told European allies that the US would only offer minimal guarantees for Ukraine, with most burden left for Europe to pick up.
A Nato diplomat briefered on the talks told Politico: “The US is not fully committed to anything.”
Any prospects of making further diplomatic progress also appeared to have stalled, with numerous Russian officials and diplomats toning down the expectations for both ceasefire and a potential Zelenskyy-Putin meeting.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that any meeting would need to be prepared “with the utmost care”, while the country’s deputy representative to the UN, Dmitry Polansky, told the BBC that “it shouldn’t be a meeting for the sake of a meeting.”
Or to translate to plain English: thanks but no, thanks.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to these stalling tactics this morning, calling for a “strong reaction” from the US if Putin refuses to meet him, as discussed with Trump.
The Ukrainian president also appeared to play down the prospect of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, hosting the potential summit with Putin, calling it “challenging.”
Hungary has long been Russia’s loudest advocate within the European Union, often looking to delay or block the sanctions, and criticising Kyiv and other capitals for their approach to the war. Budapest is also blocking Ukraine’s accession process to the EU.
Zelenskyy also pointed out another round of Russian attacks overnight, including against an American enterprise in Zakarpatia region, which injured 15 people.
He said the attacks were “as if nothing had changed at all.”
“A response is needed to this. There is still no signal from Moscow that they are really going to go into meaningful negotiations and end this war. Pressure is needed. Strong sanctions, strong tariffs.”
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Thursday, 21 August 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
