So once again, we all breathe a sigh of relief. Once again, the worst outcome has been averted, at least for now. We get to live another day.  

For a moment there, it was touch and go. You could see the domino-sequence of outcomes, one after the other, each of them a tombstone on European history.

In a meeting last week, Vladimir Putin seemingly convinced Donald Trump that Ukraine must give up Donbas, thereby depriving it of its ability to defend against future attacks – a modern version of the Sudetenland gambit. President Volodymyr Zelensky was obviously going to refuse. In the face of that refusal, US assistance could be withdrawn. And then Europe would once again find itself facing Russia without American assistance. 

Before the summit, it sounded like we were once again heading for this type of disastrous outcome. “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to,” Trump said ahead of the meeting, in an exact reversal of moral and empirical reality. 

Europe’s leaders deserve credit for what happened next. They made sure that Zelensky did not walk into the trap that was laid for him last time – being abused by Trump,

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