The European Council fails in its rearmament plan while division in the EU persists
The reporter and journalist María Senovilla, contributor to Atalayar, analysed the negotiations for the war in Ukraine on the programme ‘De cara al mundo’ on Onda Madrid.
She also considered Ukraine's agricultural production.
Yesterday's meeting in Brussels, European Council, heads of state and government... The Hungarian is not deceiving, he is maintaining his dissent. What is the impression in Ukraine about this European Union?
There are no great hopes, but Hungary's dissidence is not the only stumbling block to be overcome, as there is also the fact that the other countries of the European Union cannot agree on how to help Ukraine at such a critical moment. It has become clear that there are two blocs within Europe right now: the countries closest to Russia, led by Poland and the Baltic republics, who perceive Putin as a real, physical and direct threat; and the rest of the countries, where we have seen France confronting Germany over the best way to stand up to the Russian threat. But this division shows that the history of the 20th century for these countries so close to Russia and their perception of their Russian neighbour as a direct threat is very real.
The other countries, those of us who are further away from the Russian border, have a different perception and a different way of approaching things. Emmanuel Macron is still committed to sending troops to Ukrainian soil, while Germany is distancing itself from this idea and proposing to help with air and sea support. The only thing they agree on is to continue implementing sanctions against Russia, which to date have not been decisive and there is nothing to suggest that they will be now.
So this meeting in Brussels, which yesterday seemed hopeful, and where Zelensky also attended to explain how the last telephone conversation with Donald Trump had gone, finally concluded without any major agreements, without reflecting that awakening of the European Union that was what was expected, now that Trump is increasingly disengaging from Europe.
And with regard to the ceasefire you mentioned, a partial ceasefire that came out of a conversation, also by telephone, between Putin and Trump, Russia promised three days ago to stop bombing Ukraine's energy infrastructure, and after that conversation, after making that announcement, a few minutes later they bombed a hospital in Sumy. Since then the bombing has not stopped.
The ceasefire is not being respected.
The ceasefire is supposed to be against energy infrastructure, but if you announce it, the first thing you do is bomb a hospital. You can imagine that the public is not reassured, and they feel immersed in a ceasefire that gives them no respite. And besides, among these bombings that have not stopped these three days, apart from Kharkiv and Odessa, Putin is focusing a lot on northern Donetsk. Remember that he wants to complete the capture of Donbas before a total and definitive ceasefire, and among those bombings against northern Donetsk, he did knock out the electrical infrastructure of Sloviansk, as well as perpetrating a double-tap attack on Kramatorsk last Thursday with Shahed drones.
It launched them against a residential neighbourhood, where I was living in 2023, next to my old house, and when the emergency services went to rescue the victims it launched another wave of Shaheds. That is the ceasefire Russia has in mind. In recent days the bombings have increased after that announcement of a partial ceasefire, and what is perceived here in Ukraine is that the announcement of a partial ceasefire is in response to the fact that, in recent weeks, Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with these long-range drones were proving more effective.
It had been announced that they had hit several refineries a few days ago, which are also supply points for the fighter-bomber planes that Russia then uses to carry out air strikes against Ukraine, and it can be seen that the Kremlin was suffering some damage, I don't know how much, but without a doubt this proposal for an à la carte ceasefire only for the energy sector tactically responds to Russian interests in trying to prevent Ukraine from stopping attacking Russian soil with those long-range drones infrastructures, such as refineries or places where they refuel their fighter-bombers.
A new meeting is scheduled for today in Saudi Arabia between Russia and the United States, and there will be another meeting involving the United States and Ukraine. What are the expectations? What will be put on the table?
It will be put on separate tables because the Russian and Ukrainian delegations will not be mixed. They will hold separate meetings with the US negotiators and so far what has transpired is that Ukraine is going to present a list of critical infrastructure objects to be respected in the ceasefire, with no confidence that Russia will then comply, and it has transpired that the leader of the Russian delegation is a former spy, a former senior FSB official, Sergei Beseda, who was one of the planners of the large-scale invasion of 2022. These are the representatives that Russia is sending to the peace agreement negotiations.
A curiosity, in addition to the rare earths that the United States craves, President Trump, how does Ukraine feel about the idea of the United States taking over Ukrainian nuclear power plants?
Zelensky has contradicted Trump and denied that there has been any discussion of the US taking over Ukrainian power stations as part of the peace agreement, insisting that all this energy infrastructure belongs to the people of Ukraine.
The counter-proposal that Zelensky has made to Trump is that, if they are willing to recover the nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia, which is currently occupied by Russia, in order to invest there, that Ukraine is indeed willing to discuss it, but that there have been no real talks in that direction. The Ukrainian government has practically given up on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and they know that it will be very difficult for Russia to give them back the area in southern Zaporizhzhia where the plant is located. I think they have known this for a long time, and in fact they have been carrying out expansion work on some of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants for over a year now.
I had access to the Yemenilsky nuclear power plant last November, and I was told that there is a plan underway to turn this plant, which is in the centre of the country, into the largest plant in Europe, expanding the number of energy-generating cores, making them more modern and with more capacity. And I'm going to give you a very interesting nuance, and that is that the reactors that Ukraine has bought to carry out this expansion and convert the Yemenilsky plant into the largest nuclear power plant in Europe are American reactors. That is to say, there are already commercial agreements with US companies that are highly regarded in Ukraine, but they have never presented themselves or outlined themselves with those almost colonial airs and graces that Trump presents, of taking over the resources in the style of the Old West.
The trade agreements already existed, I think they are fruitful, they will continue to advance, but now Trump has raised the point that it is one thing to have trade agreements, and another to take over our natural resources in a colonialist style. The dialectical battle that is taking place in these incipient negotiations has already become part of the war and every day is a new shock.
Before, it was done more discreetly because in all conflicts there is always the business of reconstruction afterwards, but now it is done in a rather stark way. In addition, there is the issue of rare earths and nuclear power plants... and grain, wheat, the breadbasket of Europe and even the world. An issue that currently goes unnoticed, but Ukraine is fundamental for trade and food, not only human food, but also livestock, for example, for Europe, but also for Africa. What is the situation right now? Is it not being discussed or what is going on with this key element?
Yes, here internally not only is it being talked about, but work is being done, above all on plans that include mine clearance, because many farming areas where there have been battles nearby or even that have been occupied, are now mined.
There are explosives and it is impossible to resume production, it is impossible to work, it is impossible to farm, it is impossible to do anything. So it is true that, in the last year and a half, Ukraine has implemented and here there are partners from other Western countries, Canada, who are helping with this cleaning, with this demining so that agricultural work can be resumed.
Then there is a portion of land that is occupied within that 18.4% of Ukrainian territory that Ukraine has occupied, where there is very fertile land, and then there is land that is too close to the front line for agricultural work to be carried out normally because it is within range of Russian artillery, so it is not being considered either.
On the other side, where it is more or less safe, although no one is safe from a missile strike, work continues and exports continue to be made, even through the port of Odessa and by road. A few months ago there was also controversy over problems with the Polish border because many of these goods were being taken out by train and road, and Polish farmers protested because they are asking for tariffs, taxes, to be placed on Ukrainian crops so that they are not at a disadvantage. In other words, these exports have continued, obviously at a much lower level than before the war began, for all the reasons I've told you about.