Bowen: Zelensky buoyant, but Europe will struggle to guarantee Ukraine's security

President Volodymyr Zelensky was in a buoyant mood when I met him in Paris with a panel of three other European journalists. He had interrupted a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and went back there for what he called a "tête à tête dinner" after the interview.

Macron had not just rolled out the red carpet for him. The Eiffel Tower, behind Zelensky in a picture window as we talked in one of Paris's great museums, was lit up in yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian national flag.

The French wanted him to feel as if he was among friends. Zelensky had come to Paris to meet leaders and diplomats from 30 other countries who are working out what they can contribute to the "coalition of the willing", the group that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are trying to organise to offer Ukraine security guarantees if there is a long-term ceasefire.

Zelensky's welcome in Paris was a clear contrast to the dressing down he was given by US President Donald Trump and his vice president JD Vance when he visited the White House last month.

After their verbal attack, Zelensky was unceremoniously turfed out of the White House and not long afterwards Trump ordered the suspension of American military aid and intelligence to Ukraine.

It was restored after Zelensky, advised by the British, the French and other European allies, went out of his way to mend his fences with Trump and his administration.

He switched to the kind of flattering language Trump demands and agreed to an American plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. He dropped his insistence on US security guarantees first, to underpin any ceasefire.

But even though US military and intelligence assistance is flowing, Trump's ruthless suspension of it, which cost Ukrainian lives, has left a deep sense of unease in Ukraine and among its European allies.

The evidence is piling up that Trump's United States is not a reliable ally. It is getting easier to sketch out scenarios in which it might not be an ally at all.

Most European leaders still try to act publicly as if the 80-year-old alliance with the US is healthy. But the gathering of 30 countries in Paris shows they realise they can no longer rely on the benevolence of the United States.

American presidents going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s have complained, with good reason, about Europeans getting a free ride from the US security blanket over Europe. Trump has finally pulled it away.

During the interview, Zelensky praised the array of plans that are being formulated in western Europe – led by the UK, France and Germany – to spend more on defence.

He suggested that in three to five years, "if everything goes as it is now", Europe might even catch up with the United States.

At best, that is a highly optimistic estimate, less an accurate forecast and more a gesture of appreciation for European allies who unlike the Americans attach very few conditions and strings to support for Ukraine.

Europe, Zelensky said, "has discipline and no chaos". That might be seen as an oblique and unflattering comparison with the twists and turns coming out of the Trump White House.

• Russia: Sanctions must be lifted before maritime ceasefire can start
• What is Swift and why is banning Russia so significant?
• Why did Putin invade Ukraine?

I asked him about the conditions Russia's President Vladimir Putin has attached to the latest small step in the Trump peace initiative, which is a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.

After Ukraine and Russia held separate meetings with the Americans in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin issued a statement that required concessions as Russia's price for a ceasefire.

The most significant demand was for a state-owned Russian bank to be readmitted to the Swift system for international payments. That would open a door back into mainstream global commerce for Russia.

That decision does not depend on Trump, as Swift is based in Belgium.

The European Union foreign affairs spokeswoman responded with a statement saying one of the "main preconditions" for lifting or amending sanctions on Russia was "the end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine".

Even Trump, reluctant to criticise Putin, suggested that Russia might be "dragging its feet" in the negotiations with the US. It reminded him of his own business career.

He told the US cable channel Newsmax that "I've done it over the years… I don't want to sign a contract. I want to sort of stay in the game."

I asked Zelensky where the push for a ceasefire stood, given Russia's demands. He called for a resolute response from the Americans.

"If America is going to stand strong and not bend to the conditions of the Russians - we stand on our land.

"We are defending it; we have shown our resilience to everyone… And now it's very important that our partners would be resilient and strong, at least at the minimum, as we are."

I asked whether he believed the Americans would, as he put it, stay strong.

"I hope so. I hope so. God bless they will. But we'll see."

Zelensky has no choice about stating his faith in Trump's America, even though he must have grave doubts.

Trump's decision to punish Ukraine by cutting off military intelligence about Russia missile launches had an immediate and deadly impact, and Zelensky had to work hard to get Trump to relent. He does not want it to happen again.

He was open about why he had to try to stay close to Trump, even as the US president seemed to be prioritising the restoration of relations with Moscow as he repeated Russian propaganda points, not least the lie that Ukraine started the war.

"We needed to unblock the aid from the US. For us, the exchange of intelligence is very important."

That did not stop Zelensky rebuking comments made by Steve Witkoff, Trump's super envoy, a real estate billionaire turned diplomat who deals with the Middle East as well as the Russian-Ukraine war.

In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, a right-wing podcaster in the United States, Witkoff disparaged the drive by the UK's Starmer and France's Macron to create the "coalition of the willing" to support Ukraine.

The American said it was a posture and pose, "a simplistic desire" to sound like Winston Churchill. His words fit squarely into what seems now to be a settled view in the Trump Administration that their erstwhile allies in Europe are a parasitical burden on the United States.

What if Witkoff was right? Strip away the insults and recognise that Europe's richest nations have chosen, for decades, to spend most of their considerable wealth on matters they consider more pressing than their militaries.

Zelensky said Witkoff and others in the Trump administration, had fallen for Russian propaganda.

"I think that Witkoff often quotes the Kremlin narratives… I can't be ungrateful to the Americans for everything they did, but they are often, unfortunately, under the influence of Russian narratives. And we cannot agree with these narratives."

Zelensky suggested that Witkoff was better at his old job, developing real estate in Manhattan.

"He doesn't look like a military man. He doesn't look like a general, and he doesn't have such experience. As far as I know, he is very good at selling and buying real estate. And this is a little different."

President Zelensky, for a man who has lived with immense pressure since Russia's full scale invasion more than three years ago, was remarkably buoyant, clearly pleased by the reception he had in Paris and the efforts that President Macron and Prime Minister Starmer are making to rally European support and to persuade, even cajole, Trump not to cut intelligence and military support to Ukraine.

Zelensky seemed happy with his new strategy of agreeing to temporary ceasefires to force Putin to show his reluctance to pause the war.

I asked Zelensky how he was dealing with the pressure. His goal, he said, was for his children to be able "to walk down the street and not have to hide." And how did he think he'd be remembered; as the man who saved Ukraine, or tried to and failed? Zelensky grimaced slightly. Better, he said, than Putin, who was getting old and feared his own people.

"He will die soon. It is a fact. His reign could end before he finishes his historically insignificant and unsuccessful life. This is what he fears."

Zelensky laughed.

"And I will do everything I can to defend Ukraine as much as I can. And I am definitely younger than Putin."

Trump might be hoping for a deal by Easter. Zelensky is still looking to the long haul.