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After three long years of fighting, is there finally light at the end of the tunnel in the war in Ukraine? President Trump has been adamant about brokering a peace agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, European leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Paris Monday afternoon to see what a peace agreement means for the rest of the continent. WOR White House correspondent Jon Decker appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to dissect the avenues to peace in Eastern Europe.
These were the conditions and concerns Decker laid out to host Larry Mendte as part of the conversation to end the war: “As it relates to the EU, the European Union, as it relates to NATO and President Zelensky, President Trump has indicated that they will have a seat at the table; it’s just that, in this initial meeting, it will be lead by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. We don’t know who’s going to be on the Russian side. I would imagine his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, will be there, representing Russia. But again, no representative from Ukraine at the table in this initial meeting. I think that the concern for Ukraine, the concern for President Zelensky, is that the US gives away too much without Ukraine having any say in the matter.”
But the key question, Decker indicates, is still is hanging in the air- are a cease-fire and a lasting peace treaty imminent? “I don’t know if it’s weeks away or if it’s more difficult to get to a meeting of the minds. But what President Trump said (Sunday) when he was speaking to reporters while in Florida, essentially what he said is both Zelensky and President Putin want this war to end; it’s just what does that look like and what do the borders of Ukraine look like once a cease-fire put in place. And, once a permanent peace is put in place, what are the guarantees hat down the road, four years down the road, Russia doesn’t do what they did three years ago once again.”
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