DONALD Trump must not impose a peace deal in Ukraine without the involvement of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Greens have argued.
The Ukrainian president has been excluded from high-level talks between Russia and America on ending the war – with Zelensky saying he will not recognise any deal made without Ukraine’s participation.
The Scottish Greens have said there must be no peace deal without “Ukrainians in the room to negotiate it”.
It comes as European leaders on Monday scrambled to an emergency meeting in Paris convened by Emmanuel Macron (below, right) to respond to Trump’s surprise announcement last week.
Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens’ external affairs spokesperson, told The National: “There can be no ‘peace’ agreement for Ukraine without Ukrainians in the room to negotiate it.
“It certainly can’t be an agreement imposed on them by Trump and Putin. That would be an insult to the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have died fighting for their freedom.
“We must not go back a hundred years to a time when the biggest powers simply carved up smaller countries between them.”
Others are more optimistic about the outcome of the talks, with Stop the War convenor Lindsey German saying that discussions between America and Russia were “inevitable”.
She told BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine programme: “Everybody knew that that the war was being lost in Ukraine and shouldn’t be continued and there should be a settlement. We said this three years ago. We said it couldn’t be won, it was a proxy war with Nato.”
German said that Keir Starmer’s announcement that the UK would send troops to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire was an attempt to “save face” by the Prime Minister.
Asked whether she believed that negotiating with Russian president Vladimir Putin (below) represented a threat to European security, German said: “The idea that Russia is about to invade across the European continent is simply fantastic, it isn’t going to happen. Russia has an economy the same size as Spain.
"Putin is an aggressor against Ukraine, there’s no question. I opposed the Russian invasion back when it happened three years ago – but this is not a threat to the whole of Europe.”
She said that “almost certainly” a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would change the border, with Russia having annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including some areas which remain outside of its control.
German added that European efforts to boost defence spending, with Trump demanding 5% of GDP from Nato members and Labour aiming for 2.5%, would fuel the "growth of the far right" and further "instability".
She said a major rearmament programme would encourage "militarism" and meant the money would not be spent on "decent health and housing and all the other things that people need".
First Minister John Swinney (below) has demanded that Starmer put his peacekeeping force proposals to a vote in the Commons.
Some EU leaders have framed the conflict in Ukraine as an existential threat to other European countries.
Speaking before the meeting in Paris, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commisson, said: “We need an urgency mindset. We need a surge in defence. And we need both of them now.”
Starmer has echoed her comments saying that Europe had to “step up” its defence “capability”, adding: “This isn’t just about the frontline in Ukraine. It’s the frontline of Europe and of the UK. It’s about our national security.”
