European leaders are urging Donald Trump to ensure Ukraine has a seat at the table in his planned summit with Vladimir Putin, warning against any agreement struck “over the heads” of Kyiv and its allies.
Speaking before the anticipated Friday Alaska meeting of Trump and Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told it was "unthinkable" that Washington and Moscow would negotiate Ukraine's future territory without President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the table.
"We are not going to accept that questions of territory are resolved without Europeans and Ukrainians," Merz said to ARD, and Berlin was working closely with Washington to gain Zelenskyy's attendance. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the same, saying that Ukraine should determine its own future and be sovereign.
EU foreign policy leader Kaja Kallas made a call for an emergency ministers meeting, emphasizing that any agreement between the US and Russia needs Ukraine and the EU to be included. "This is Europe's security matter," she emphasized.
Trump's vice-president, JD Vance, corroborated that Washington was making efforts towards bringing Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy together in a meeting, but indicated that it could be unfruitful for the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet prior to Trump's conversation with Putin.
In the meantime, UK, French, Italian, German, Polish, and Finnish leaders, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, put out a statement alerting that peace negotiations can only happen in conjunction with a ceasefire or decrease in violence.
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As political jockeying went on, fighting on the ground did not give any indication of abating. On Sunday, Ukraine reported five killed in Russian shelling and drone attacks. Russia reported one killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in its Saratov region. Russian drone attacks killed four civilians in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia a day before, injuring at least 16.
Zelenskyy embraced European support, saying that "the end of the war must be fair" and any agreement without Kyiv was "dead" and "would never work."
Wall Street Journal reports indicate European officials made a counteroffer at recent peace negotiations in Kent, demanding a ceasefire first before negotiations and requiring that any territorial exchange is mutual, with solid security guarantees.
If Friday's Trump-Putin meeting takes place, it will be the first bilateral meeting between a US president and the Russian leader since Putin met with Joe Biden in 2021. Trump indicated a proposal that would constitute "swapping territories to the benefit of both," something Kyiv has outrightly rejected.
Merz is cautiously hopeful: "We hope that there will finally be a ceasefire and that peace talks can start." But with no officially confirmed guest list, the greatest question of all is will Ukraine be included when the fate of the nation is determined?
