Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders yesterday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stalling for time in diplomatic efforts to bring his invasion of Ukraine to an end, and opposed any move to make Kyiv surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as US President Donald Trump has on occasion suggested.
Eight European leaders as well as senior EU officials said in a joint statement they intend to go ahead with plans to use Moscow’s billions of US dollars of frozen assets abroad to help Kyiv win the war, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.
The statement expressed support for Trump’s peace efforts in Ukraine as he prepares to meet with Putin in Budapest in coming weeks, but it also laid down a marker by saying the leaders “remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.”
Photo: Reuters
Trump last month reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to concede land and suggested it could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia.
However, after a phone call with Putin last week and a subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump shifted his position again and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” in the more than three-year war.
On Sunday, Trump said that the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands.
Ukrainian and European leaders are trying hard to keep Trump on their side.
“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” the statement said. “We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction.”
The statement by the leaders of Ukraine, the UK, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Denmark and EU officials came early in what Zelenskiy on Monday said would be a week that is “very active in diplomacy.”
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels tomorrow.
“We must ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defense industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,” yesterday’s statement said.
On Friday, a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing — a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine — is scheduled to take place in London.
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