At the G7 summit in France, European leaders pressed Donald Trump to take up a proposal to host talks in the United States between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, as they sought to break the deadlock over ending the Ukraine war. Trump lamented the 'great antipathy' between the two leaders and said Moscow 'should make a deal', noting that Russia had 'lost a great many people, just like Ukraine'.
Zelenskyy, attending the summit at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, met Trump face-to-face for the first time in four months, alongside Macron. The Ukrainian president argued that Kyiv was no longer losing on the battlefield and that the US should act as a mediator supportive of Ukraine, not merely a messenger between the two sides. The meeting delayed the start of the full summit.
Speaking via video link to a Reuters conference, Zelenskyy said G7 leaders unanimously agreed that Russia was not winning and was losing many people, and must therefore reach an agreement as quickly as possible. He stressed the importance of trying to organise talks with Russia before the winter, while acknowledging that Moscow had not responded to his proposal for Putin to attend the G7 meeting. He added: 'I think Donald Trump can do it, mainly only him.'
The G7 leaders also agreed to step up sanctions on Russian energy, with the EU preparing its 21st sanctions package, including restrictions on the sale of LNG tankers to Russia. The UK, Germany and France, which are providing most of the financial and military support to Ukraine, want to be directly represented at any talks. Putin's special representative, Kirill Dmitriev, dismissed European efforts as 'poison pills' designed to derail peace discussions, while welcoming what he called Starmer's 'political demise'.
Zelenskyy also told G7 leaders he was making changes to army pay to make frontline recruitment levels sustainable, a move aimed at countering claims by US Vice-President JD Vance that Ukraine was bound to lose because of Russia's superior ability to recruit soldiers.
