Trump Call Fallout Risks Stalling Momentum Toward Ukraine Peace

(Bloomberg) -- Fallout from Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader is reverberating far beyond Washington.

A readout of the infamous conversation, which has prompted an impeachment probe in the U.S. and the resignation of Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, showed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy lashing out at the same European allies he needs to push ahead with talks to end the Kremlin-backed war in his nation’s east.

The revelations come just as Germany and France eye a breakthrough in four-way talks with Ukraine and Russia. Negotiators meet Oct. 1 before a possible leaders’ summit.

Zelenskiy’s faux-pas is at least not helpful to diplomatic efforts, and risks slowing the process, even if it doesn’t halt it, according to two German officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. One said it’s a sensitive moment because the government in Kyiv is dragging the process.

Franco-German efforts to end the five-year conflict that’s killed more than 13,000 people got a boost with the election of Zelenskiy, a political newcomer who’s prioritized peace. Talks could revive the sidelined Minsk accord from 2015.

The hostilities, which erupted in the Donbas region after Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, have triggered U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia, rekindling Cold War rivalries.

Trump ridiculed EU assistance for Ukraine in the July 25 phone call, criticizing Chancellor Angela Merkel and saying “Germany does almost nothing for you” compared with the U.S.

Zelenskiy agreed. “Not only 100%, but actually 1000%,” he said, according to a declassified rough transcript of the call released Wednesday. Zelenskiy said Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron weren’t doing enough to uphold the Russia sanctions.

He said later that he’d thought the White House would release “only their part” of the transcript.

View From Moscow

A French official played down Zelenskiy’s comments, saying Macron’s government won’t take issue with them. The Ukrainian leader will probably be more cautious in the future, the official said on condition of anonymity, blaming Russia for the slowing pace of progress. The German Chancellery declined to comment.

Zelenskiy is viewed in Moscow as a leader with whom Vladimir Putin can deal, according to a person close to the Kremlin. Although significant hurdles remain, the rejuvenated Minsk talks offer optimism, the person said on condition of anonymity.

The new atmosphere between Moscow and Kyiv was on display this month in a mass exchange of prisoners, including 24 Ukrainian sailors detained last year in a naval clash with Russia.

The contours of a breakthrough were confirmed by several officials. The deal would be along the lines of a proposal by then-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, linking a special status for Donbas to independent endorsement of local elections, both laid out in the Minsk agreement.

Zelenskiy has said there will be no changes to Ukraine’s constitution, which lays out goals for membership of the EU and NATO. The Kremlin opposes its neighbor’s plans for Western integration, which sparked tensions between the two former allies back in 2013.

Should parties agree on the “Steinmeier formula,” which the person close to the Kremlin said was a condition for Moscow, a summit with Merkel, Macron, Putin and Zelenskiy -- the first of its kind since 2016 -- will be held.

“Both sides expressed an interest in resolving the situation in Donbas in line with the Minsk accords,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday in New York after meeting Zelenskiy. Lavrov didn’t rule out a summit, but told the Kommersant newspaper that “it doesn’t depend on us.”

--With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.

To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net;Henry Meyer in New York at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley

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