BERLIN – Kyiv is willing to discuss territorial issues with Russia, amid new “hope for movement” towards peace in Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday.
The comments came after a digital summit of European leaders with Donald Trump, during which they discussed the US president’s controversial meeting with Vladimir Putin on Russia’s war in Ukraine, set to take place in Alaska on Friday.
Merz said that Europeans used the call with Trump on Wednesday to underline that “fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests must be maintained in Alaska.”
“There is hope for movement. There is hope for peace in Ukraine,” Merz said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.
Merz outlined the joint European position on the talks, consisting of five points, including – notably – that Kyiv “is prepared to negotiate on territorial issues.”
A legal recognition of Russian occupations was “not up for discussion,” he added, however.
“The principle that border must not be changed by force must be upheld,” he stressed.
The American president had raised eyebrows in Europe when he suggested that Moscow and Kyiv could discuss swapping Ukrainian-held territory against Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, sparking fears that America and Russia could try and engineer a ceasefire deal in Ukraine’s absence.
Trump later said, however, that it was not up to him to make a deal and that he would try to get territory back for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy previously said that he was not prepared to concede territory to Russia.
In Berlin, he stressed that his overall position “hasn’t changed” and that any deal would need to be compliant with Ukraine’s constitution.
French President Emmanuel Macron noted that Trump had agreed during the call that Ukraine must be involved in territorial talks in any ceasefire deal with Russia. “There are no schemes for territory swaps on the table,” he said.
Aligned ‘to very large extent’
Other joint priorities listed by Merz included that Ukraine would need a seat at the table in future peace negotiations, that a ceasefire would need to precede peace talks, and that “solid” security guarantees would need to be negotiated.
Merz also called for a joint transatlantic approach, that would entail jointly “increasing the pressure… if there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska.”
Trump shared this position “to a very large extent,” Merz said.
Other European leaders shared the optimistic outlook after the call, that included the heads of state and government of Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, as well as the presidents of the European Commission and European Council, and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Rutte wrote on X that European and America were “united in pushing to end to this terrible war.”
“The ball is now in Putin’s court,” he added.
This article has been updated with comments from French President Emmanuel Macron.
*Magnus Lund Nielsen contributed reporting.
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