Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.
Speaking before a bilateral meeting expected to take place between the US and Russian leaders on Friday in Alaska, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he hoped and assumed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would also be involved. Merz told the broadcaster ARD that Berlin was working closely with Washington to try to ensure Zelenskyy’s attendance at the talks. “We cannot accept in any case that territorial questions are discussed or even decided between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians,” he said.
The secretary general of Nato, Mark Rutte, said the summit would be about testing Putin on how serious he was about “bringing this terrible war to an end”. In pointed remarks, Rutte added: “It will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute need to acknowledge that Ukraine decides on its own future, that Ukraine has to be a sovereign nation, deciding on its own geopolitical future.”
Announcing there would be an emergency meeting of EU ministers for Monday, Brussel’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, echoed that sentiment. “President Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine. The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security,” Kallas said.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, speaking a day after meeting the UK foreign minister, David Lammy, during his holiday in England, said Washington was working towards talks between Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump. But Vance said he did not think it would be productive for the Russian president to meet his Ukrainian counterpart before speaking with Trump. “We’re at a point now where we’re trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that, around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,” he told Fox News.
On Saturday night, European leaders issued a coordinated statement that said the “path to peace” in Ukraine could not be decided without Kyiv. Welcoming Trump’s attempts to end the war, leaders from the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, along with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, emphasised that negotiations could only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities. It added: “Only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed.”
