European leaders are to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during his visit to Washington today seeking an end to Moscow’s invasion, after US President Donald Trump dropped his push for a ceasefire following an Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the Kremlin ordered the invasion, had been one of Trump’s core demands before the summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.
After the meeting yielded no breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine — a move that would appear to favor Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.
Photo: AFP
Ukraine and its European allies have criticized Putin’s stance as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances.
The leaders heading to Washington today to try to bend Trump’s ear on the matter include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is also going to the White House, met with Zelenskiy in Brussels yesterday for a meeting the other European leaders joined by video.
Also heading to Washington would be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who get on well with Trump.
The German government, which confirmed Merz was going, said it would try to emphasize “interest in a swift peace agreement in Ukraine.”
Trump had briefed Zelenskiy and European leaders on his flight back from Alaska to Washington, saying afterwards that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement which would end the war.”
Ceasefire agreements “often times do not hold up,” Trump argued on his Truth Social platform.
Zelenskiy has appeared unconvinced by the change of tack, saying on Saturday that it “complicates the situation.”
If Moscow lacks “the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement [something] far greater — peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades,” he said on social media.
European leaders for their part have expressed unease over Trump’s outreach to Putin from the outset.
Trump expressed support during his call with Zelenskiy and European leaders for a proposal by Putin to take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions that Russia largely controls in exchange for freezing the front line in two others, an official briefed on the talks told Agence France-Presse.
Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas,” an area consisting of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, the source said.
In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.
Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions, even though its troops still do not fully control any of them.
“The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas,” the source said.
Trump notably also said the US was prepared to provide Ukraine security guarantees, an assurance Merz hailed as “significant progress.”
However, there was a scathing assessment of the summit outcome from EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, who accused Putin of seeking to “drag out negotiations” with no commitment to end the bloodshed.
“The harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon,” Kallas said.
The diplomatic focus now switches to Zelenskiy’s talks at the White House.
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