European leaders urged Donald Trump to press Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire and a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he sits down with the Russian president on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters after a call with Trump and other European leaders, said that any decision on territorial concessions will need to be made by Ukraine.
“Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,” he told reporters in Bregancon, France, on Wednesday. “There are no serious territorial exchange plans on the table today.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also was on the call with the US leader, reiterated that Ukraine would need to be involved in any decisions.
“We have made it clear that Ukraine will be at the table as soon as there is a follow-up meeting,” Merz told reporters. “President Trump wants to make a ceasefire a priority.”
Trump joined European leaders including from Germany, France and Italy as well as Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for the call.
The discussions came after days of intense diplomacy between US, European and Ukrainian officials ahead of Trump’s meeting with Putin scheduled for Friday in Alaska.
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas region to Russia as well as Crimea, which his forces illegally annexed in 2014, as a condition to unlock a ceasefire and enter negotiations over a lasting settlement, Bloomberg previously reported.
Such an outcome would require Kyiv to give up parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces still under Ukraine’s control and hand Russia a victory that its army couldn’t achieve militarily for more than a decade.
Zelenskiy told reporters earlier this week that he won’t cede Donbas, adding that the Kremlin could use it as a launchpad for a future new offensive. European nations have made clear to the US that they will not formally recognize territory illegally occupied by Russia.
Kyiv and its allies argue that a truce along the current battle-lines should be the first step toward formal negotiations. European leaders also stressed to Trump that Ukraine needs robust security guarantees to ensure that any deal holds.
“If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure,” Merz said. “President Trump is aware of this position and largely shares it.”
Trump hasn’t implemented any direct measures against Moscow so far, though he doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last week for its purchases of Russian oil, sparking outrage in New Delhi. He threatened to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow unless Putin agreed to a ceasefire by last Friday. That deadline passed without any further action after the two sides announced their first summit meeting since Trump’s return to the White House in January.
European leaders also said that Trump, Putin and Zelenskiy could aim to formalize a ceasefire alongside an agreement on the core parameters for peace negotiations at a trilateral meeting, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. .
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