The most telling twist to yesterday’s visit by a trio of top European leaders to Kyiv is the one least reported, but according to German newspaper Die Welt, the EU’s “new tripartite axis” encouraged Ukraine’s president to negotiate with the Russian strongman. In the course of a brief but highly publicized and heavily stage-managed visit, the French president, the German chancellor, and the Italian prime minister are said “from behind closed doors” to have suggested that President Zelensky use the negotiating table to hash out a way to end the war with President Putin. 

While the human cost of the war is a given, with at least several dozen and possibly hundreds of people on the frontlines dying every day, the financial fallout of Russia’s protracted pummeling of Ukraine also looms large. “The economic damage their countries are suffering because of the war is getting bigger and harder to pay for,” the Die Welt report said, adding, “Economic growth has slowed down sharply, and inflation has reached a record level.”

A call for direct communication between the Kremlin and Kyiv is in itself nothing new; Mr. Zelensky has sought Mr. Putin’s ear numerous times since the Russian invasion started on February 24. At issue is what precisely the two would discuss; all attempts by their teams of respective would-be negotiators to hammer out a ceasefire have so far failed. “It was important for me to hear from the leaders … [that] they agree that the end of the war and peace for Ukraine must be exactly as Ukraine sees them. As our people see them,” Mr. Zelensky’s office said in a statement. 

President Macron said at a news conference with Mr. Zelensky that France, Germany, Italy, and Romania “are doing everything so that Ukraine alone can decide its fate.” What is intriguing is the difference between the public-facing communication from Ukraine and what may have been said away from the television cameras.

Mr. Macron, Chancellor Scholz, and Prime Minister Draghi, representing the EU’s three largest economies, traveled to Kyiv together on a special overnight train. They had been criticized for not visiting sooner. Their arrival  coincided with the wailing of an air raid siren. “Russia has created a background for everyone to hear these sirens to create a tense atmosphere,” Mr. Zelensky said. “But no one was scared, and it only inspired us to be as specific as possible and to negotiate for our interests — for all Ukrainians and for all in Europe.”

In a sign of just how difficult ending the war in Ukraine will be, the Kremlin wasted no time in attacking the leaders’ visit to Kyiv with a string of derision and choice insults. The former Russian president who is now deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, dismissed the European leaders as “connoisseurs of frogs, liver, and pasta” and said their visit brought no benefit. “Again they promised EU membership and old howitzers, slammed down some vodka and, like 100 years ago, took the train home,” he tweeted. “And that’s all good. It’s just that this doesn’t bring Ukraine any closer to peace.”

France will provide six additional Caesar truck-mounted artillery systems to Ukraine; Mr. Zelensky’s office confirmed calling the delivery “very important for our defense” as the war grinds on in the eastern Donbas region. “Also today, President Macron openly said that the European support for Ukraine should really demonstrate that we defend the same values, defend Europe together,” he said. 

Mr. Macron also took advantage of the opportunity of appearing with Mr. Zelensky for the first time since the war began to clarify some earlier remarks about not “humiliating” Russia that were widely perceived as a faux pas. “We are side by side today with Chancellor Scholz,” he said. “One hundred years ago, we were at war and allies helped France win. France committed a historic mistake. It lost the peace because it wanted to humiliate Germany. The question of humiliation I always placed in a context to come, not the current context,” he said.

It is no secret, of course, that the manner in which Europe handled the end of World War I essentially planted the seeds of World War II, making the utility of Mr. Macron’s rhetorical flourishes somewhat questionable. In public no concerned party, whether Russian, European, or other, is walking back any comments, as could be expected of a wartime situation. Yet some statements by European leaders do point to other possibilities. Mr. Draghi said at Kyiv that the millions of tons of Ukrainian grain blockaded in Black Sea ports could lead to a  “worldwide catastrophe,” and AP reported that Italy, as a first destination for African migrants, could find itself overwhelmed as a result of large-scale hunger in the southern hemisphere.

Mr. Scholz said that only the Ukrainians “can decide what is right in terms of an agreement on a peace which we are unfortunately very, very far away from,” and Mr. Medvedev noted darkly that “the clock is ticking.” What is clear is that Europeans are reeling from the economic fallout of the calamity in Ukraine and European leaders know it. Despite yesterday’s pronouncements and the West’s making good on the delivery of more weapons to Ukraine, time will tell how much the EU’s “new tripartite axis” really brought to the table. It is likely that, strategically speaking, few tangible results will emerge before a NATO summit that starts June 28 at Madrid.