UPDATED 11:34 A.M.
BERLIN/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine and its European allies on Wednesday signalled hope that U.S. President Donald Trump would push for a ceasefire at talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin without selling out Ukraine’s interests or proposing to carve up its territory.
European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Trump in a last-ditch videoconference to lay out red lines ahead of a meeting between Trump and the Russian president in Alaska late on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump agreed that Ukraine must be involved in any discussions about ceding land while Zelenskiy said Trump had supported the idea of security guarantees in a post-war settlement.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Trump – and Europe – were willing to crank up the pressure on Russia if Friday’s talks proved fruitless.
TRUMP GIVES UKRAINE MEETING 10 OUT OF 10
The U.S. president said he rated the meeting “a 10”, and his apparent willingness to take his allies’ concerns on board, if confirmed, could bring a measure of relief after fears that he and Putin could reach a deal over Europe’s head at Ukraine’s expense.
However, Russia is likely to resist Europe’s demands strongly.
“President Trump was very clear that the United States wanted to achieve a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron said.
“The second point on which things were very clear, as expressed by President Trump, is that territories belonging to Ukraine cannot be negotiated and will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president.”
Merz, who hosted the virtual meeting, said the principle that borders cannot be changed by force must continue to apply.
“If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should … increase the pressure,” he said.
“President Trump knows this position, he shares it very extensively and therefore I can say: We have had a really exceptionally constructive and good conversation with each other.”
Trump and Putin are due to discuss how to end the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War Two. Trump has previously said both sides will have to swap land to end fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions.
RUSSIA MAKES SHARP ADVANCE INTO UKRAINE
On a day of intense diplomacy, Zelenskiy flew into Berlin for German-hosted virtual meetings with European leaders and then with Trump.
He and the Europeans worry that a land swap could leave Russia with almost a fifth of Ukraine, rewarding it for almost 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land, the last three in all-out war, and embolden Putin to expand further west in the future.
Russian forces have made a sharp thrust into eastern Ukraine in recent days in what may be an attempt to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land.
Zelenskiy said there should be a three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Trump.
“I told the U.S. president and all our European colleagues that Putin is bluffing (about his stated wish to end the war). He is trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front. Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine ..”
A source familiar with the matter said the call with Trump discussed possible cities that could host a three-way meeting, depending on the outcome of the talks in Alaska.
Since announcing the Alaska summit, Trump has played down expectations, saying it would be a “feel-out” meeting.
EUROPE AND KYIV FEAR UNFAVOURABLE ALASKA DEAL
Wary of angering Trump, European leaders have repeatedly said they welcome his efforts while stressing that there should be no deal about Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation.
Trump’s agreement last week to the summit was an abrupt shift after weeks of voicing frustration with Putin for resisting the U.S. peace initiative. Trump said his envoy had made “great progress” at talks in Moscow.
A Gallup poll released last week found that 69% of Ukrainians favour a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also indicate Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev earlier said Moscow’s stance had not changed since it was set out by Putin in June 2024.
As preconditions for a ceasefire and the start of talks, the Kremlin leader had demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from four regions that Russia has claimed as its own but does not fully control, and formally renounce its plans to join NATO.
Kyiv swiftly rejected the conditions as tantamount to surrender.
(Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tom Balmforth and Matthias Williams; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Jon Boyle and Kevin Liffey)
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BERLIN/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy travelled to Berlin on Wednesday for a German-hosted virtual meeting with Donald Trump and European leaders, two days before the U.S. president meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Europe’s leaders are trying to drive home the perils of selling out Kyiv’s interests at the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021.
Trump has said the Alaska talks will be a “feel-out” meeting as he pursues a ceasefire in Moscow’s war on Ukraine, having said last week, to consternation in Kyiv and Europe, that any deal would involve “some swapping of territories”.
Zelenskiy will meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before a video conference with the leaders of Germany, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Poland and the European Union at 2 p.m. (1200 GMT), the hosts said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will also attend.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance will join the call at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).
EUROPE AND KYIV FEAR UNPREDICTABLE ALASKA DEAL
The unpredictability of the summit in Alaska has fuelled Europeans’ fears that the U.S. and Russia could take far-reaching decisions over their heads and even seek to coerce Ukraine into an unfavourable deal.
“We are focusing now to ensure that it does not happen – engaging with U.S. partners and staying coordinated and united on the European side. Still a lot of time until Friday,” said one senior official from Eastern Europe.
European leaders, wary of angering Trump, have repeatedly said they welcome his efforts while stressing that there should be no deal about Ukraine – almost a fifth of which Russia has occupied – without Ukraine’s participation.
Trump’s administration tempered expectations on Tuesday for major progress toward a ceasefire, calling his meeting with Putin in Alaska a “listening exercise”.
Trump’s agreement last week to the summit with Putin was an abrupt shift after weeks of voicing frustration with Putin for resisting the U.S. peace initiative. Trump said his envoy had made “great progress” at talks in Moscow.
Half a dozen senior European officials told Reuters that they see a risk of a deal being struck that is unfavourable for Europe and Ukraine’s security. They said European unity would be vital if that happened.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday the summit would be a “listening exercise” for Trump to hear what it would take to get to a deal.
After the meeting with Trump, the “coalition of the willing”, a group of countries working on plans to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, will also convene online.
BATTLEFIELD PRESSURE MOUNTS ON UKRAINE
A Gallup poll released last week found that 69% of Ukrainians favour a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also indicate Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions.
Ahead of the calls, Zelenskiy said it would be impossible for Kyiv to agree to a deal that would require it to withdraw its troops from the eastern Donbas region, a large swathe of which is already occupied by Russia.
That, he told reporters on Tuesday, would deprive Ukraine of a vast defensive network in the region, easing the way for a Russian push deeper into Ukraine in the future.
He said territorial issues could only be discussed once a ceasefire was in place and Ukraine had received security guarantees.
Moscow’s troops have recently ramped up pressure on the battlefield, tightening their stranglehold on the cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.
(Additional reporting by Lili Bayer, Sarah Marsh in Berlin and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Cynthia Osterman and Kevin Liffey)
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