“ Absoluet is distrustful ”: skeptical Europe before the summit of Trump-Putin

European leaders are waiting to see what results from the latest discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump as the leaders meet in Alaska on Friday.

“(There is) an absolute distrust in the slightest idea that Putin wants peace because he continues to destroy Ukraine,” the Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Dovile Sakaline, told Fox News Digital during his trip to Washington, DC, to meet Pentagon officials this week.

“Even now, when your president clearly said he wanted this war to end and essentially offer Putin the opportunity to speak, always every day and every day, until these discussions, he continues to bomb civilians,” she added. “It continues to destroy Ukrainian lands.”

President Donald Trump, on the left, and Russian president Vladimir Putin serve his hand at the start of a meeting at the presidential palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file)

Could Trump meet with Putin be the next moment Reagan-Gorbatchev?

On Wednesday, the United Nations confirmed that Russian attacks in Ukraine led last month at rates of civilian victims that have not been seen since Putin launched her invasion in 2022.

“For the second consecutive month, the number of civilian victims in Ukraine has reached a new three -year summit,” said Danielle Bell, head of the United Nations Human Rights Surveillance Mission in Ukraine, in a statement.

“Only the first three months after the Russian Federation launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine saw more killed and injured than last month.”

Friday’s meeting between Trump and Putin is important because it is not only the first time that Putin will return to the United States in a decade. This is the first time that an American leader has been meeting the chief of the Kremlin since he launched the invasion of Ukraine 3 and a half years ago.

But skepticism as to whether the meeting will give results remains high, in particular after several apparently positive calls between the pair earlier this year, which was only a frustrated Trump and the continuous bombardment of Putin of Ukraine.

A Ukrainian soldier walks with children who pass cars destroyed due to the war against Russia, in Bucha, on the outskirts of kyiv, Ukraine, on April 4, 2022. (AP photo / Rodrigo Abd)

“We in Europe, we know on our own skin that Russia and Putin specifically provide only violence,” said the Lithuanian Minister of Defense. “They break all the agreements they have ever concluded. They keep this imperial ambition to lack international rules, manually respecting the borders of independent nations.

“Consequently, what we believe is really important for President Trump to see by himself, is he even a lesser wish for Putin’s peace, or if there is none,” added Sakaline. “And if there is none, I am really sure that your president, as a person having a wide experience of dealing with very different people, can make his own conclusions.”

What we know about Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska

Trump has not yet detailed how he will react if his meeting with Putin turns out to be unsuccessful by advancing a path to a cease-fire, although he declared on Wednesday that there would be “very serious consequences” if he determines that Putin was not serious about peace.

The White House did not answer questions from Fox News Digital as to whether Trump is considering additional sanctions.

Trump has promised to start targeting the Russian war chest from August 8. By threading 100% prices on Moscow’s main export, oil.

But only India was struck by additional economic repercussions after Washington increased its 50% rate rate, which, although still one of the highest rates implemented on an American trading partner, is not below the price 100% originally threatened.

Flame vehicles in an oil depot after the missiles hit the site in an area controlled by separatist forces supported by Russia in Makiivka, in eastern Ukraine on May 4. (AP)

China, the other higher importer of Russian oil, bypassed American secondary prices after Beijing and Washington pushed the deadline on November when they continue to chop trade agreements, which means that China is lower than a price rate of 30%.

Fox News Digital Safety Experts have spoken to remain divided on the effectiveness of secondary prices to dissuade the ambitions of Putin war, which NATO allies are an existential threat to Europe.

Even in the midst of uncertainty, Sakaliene said that she and other NATO allies hope that this meeting would lead to rapid action in pursuing the end of the war, whether by real peace regulation or increased action against Moscow by the United States alongside its European allies.

The Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Dovile Sakaline, the Center and the American officers attend a sacred mass for the four American soldiers who disappeared during the exercises conducted by the United States at the Pabrade training ground at the cathedral basilica in Vilnius, Lithuania, March 3025. (AP / Mindaugas Kulbis)

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

“(I think that, for all of us, it will be a difficult weekend,” said the Minister of Defense. “But what really gives us hope is that President Trump very clearly declared that he would not be indulgent so Putin continues this war.

“And if, after Friday, Putin continues to bomb Ukraine, then he will react as we understand, really with all the strength of justice.”