US votes with Russians at UN. Trump receives Macron: 'Putin will accept European troops in Ukraine'

A man alone in command. On the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine and of the talks with Emmanuel Macron at the White House and the other G7 leaders via video link, Donald Trump made it clear that his line for the conclusion of the conflict does not include compromises.

With all due respect to the French president's mission to Washington, the commander-in-chief made it clear that without Kiev's signature on the minerals agreement, no progress can be made, but he admitted that the meeting with Macron was an "important step forward towards peace in Ukraine". A peace that, however, the French president specified, cannot be a "surrender" of Ukraine: any agreement, he reiterated several times, must include security guarantees.

At the same time, at the UN, the United States snubbed the European Union by voting with Russia against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. A double tear to which is added the announcement by the American president that in the talks with Vladimir Putin, future economic pacts between Russia and the United States are also being discussed. The note published by Trump on Truth after the video conference of just over an hour with the G7 - without a final statement, at least until late evening in Italy - could not have been clearer. "Everyone has emphasized that the objective is the end of the war, I have emphasized the importance of the vital agreement on minerals that we hope will be signed very soon", said The Donald, reiterating once again, unequivocally, that for Washington the priority is "to guarantee the recovery of the tens of billions of dollars and military equipment sent to Ukraine".

The American president said the signing of the agreement "would be very close". In the Oval Office, sitting next to Macron, the head of the White House also claimed that the war in Ukraine "could end within a few weeks" and announced that Volodymyr Zelensky would be his guest in the American capital "this week or next". A meeting with the Kremlin leader would also be imminent. "I am in serious discussions with the Russian president about ending the war and the talks are going very well!" Trump stressed, also speaking of unspecified future economic agreements with Moscow and of his visit to Russia "at the right time", when the conflict is over. Russian and American companies, echoed Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, are in "contact" for joint economic projects.

As for Europe's role in the peace process in Ukraine, Macron brought to the White House the plan agreed with Keir Starmer, arriving in Washington on Thursday, which provides for 30,000 European peacekeepers deployed in the country to ensure security. An ambitious plan that cannot work without a "strong" involvement of the United States that the French president asked Trump for during their bilateral meeting without however receiving any kind of feedback.

"Europe will provide security guarantees to Ukraine," the commander-in-chief stressed, saying he was convinced that the Kremlin was ready to accept the presence of European soldiers to guarantee peace. Demonstrating that - beyond smiles, handshakes, jokes about "beautiful wives" and how musical French is - the conversation between the two leaders was tense, was Macron's abrupt interruption of Trump's remarks when the latter was talking about loans to Ukraine. "Europe is taking back its money," the American said before being stopped by the Frenchman who placed a hand on his arm.

"To tell the truth, we paid 60% of the total effort in loans, guarantees, grants," Macron corrected him, specifying that the 230 billion dollars in Russian assets frozen in Europe "do not belong to us". The French president then explained that Trump was right to re-involve Putin: the new administration - he said - offers a new context and new possibilities. Meanwhile, at the Glass Palace, another heavy break between the Old and New Continents took place.

The UN assembly has in fact rejected the American resolution that called for an end to the war in Ukraine without mentioning Moscow's aggression, instead approving the Ukrainian one supported by Europe that asks Russia to immediately withdraw its troops and return the territories, a move that the Trump administration has firmly opposed. A defeat for the United States that, however, has underlined its distance from the EU by voting against that resolution together with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other countries friendly to Moscow.