German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will lead an online call with European leaders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, two days before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the United States.
The leaders of France, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Finland, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, will take part in Wednesday’s call, reported German news agency dpa.
A European Commission spokesperson has confirmed that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also participate.
Putin is due to meet Trump in the US state of Alaska on Friday. When announcing the meeting, Trump said: “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides.
But European leaders are urging Washington to reject any territorial deal favouring Moscow, and are warning against sidelining the EU in the talks. Over the weekend, some of them met US Vice President JD Vance in the UK and were joined by a high-level Commission official.
On Sunday, the leaders of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the UK, Finland, and the European Commission issued a joint statement insisting that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine”.
Zelenskyy has rejected the idea of territorial concessions as a path to lasting peace, writing on social media that “concessions do not persuade a killer”
“Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine. The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously,” the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement on Sunday. “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 convened an online meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday afternoon ahead of Friday’s talks in Alaska. The ministers “expressed support for US steps that will lead to a just peace,” Kallas wrote on social media late on Monday.
EU leaders – expect Hungary – have welcomed Trump’s peace efforts, saying that a lasting peace “must respect international law including the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity” in a statement released on Tuesday.
“The path to peace cannot be decided without Ukraine,” the statement adds.
(de, vib)
