EU leaders say Ukraine battle lines must be start point for talks as Trump-Putin meet plans hit snags

LONDON – European leaders said on Oct 21 that current battle lines in Ukraine must be the starting point for any peace talks as preparations for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to have hit a snag.

Mr Trump, who last week spoke by phone to Mr Putin and met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he aims to

hold a summit with the Russian leader in the Hungarian capital Budapest

within two weeks in a push to end the war in Ukraine.

But summit preparations appear to be held up after a preliminary meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – expected to take place in Budapest on Oct 23 – was postponed.

Mr Lavrov and Mr Rubio spoke by phone on Oct 20.

Mr Lavrov’s deputy, Mr Sergei Ryabkov, said on Oct 21 it was premature to speak about the timing of any face-to-face meeting between them.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was in Washington on Oct 21 and posted on Facebook: “We have some serious days ahead.”

Ukraine’s European allies have been concerned that Mr Trump could meet Mr Putin for a second time without getting any serious concessions from the Russian leader.

Mr Putin rebuffed Mr Trump’s call for a ceasefire when

Mr Trump hosted him in Alaska

in August.

In a statement on Oct 21, the leaders of European powers, including Britain, France, Germany and the EU, said they “strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations”.

Ukraine and its European allies have long insisted on an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine at present battle lines before peace talks, a position Mr Trump publicly endorsed on Oct 17 after meeting Mr Zelensky at the White House.

Moscow has said it wants Ukraine to cede more territory as one of several conditions it has raised for a ceasefire.

Reuters and other news organisations reported that Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Zelensky behind closed doors last week was contentious, with the US President repeatedly using profanity and pushing Mr Zelensky to accept some Russian demands.

But Mr Zelensky has painted the meeting as a success because it ended with Mr Trump publicly backing a ceasefire at the present lines, Kyiv’s longstanding position.

European leaders are due this week to meet Mr Zelensky as their guest, first at an EU summit and then at a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” countries discussing a security force to guarantee a post-war settlement in Ukraine.

Russia rejects such an international security force.

The choice of Budapest as a venue for a Putin-Trump meeting is contentious within the EU, where Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban is an outlier as one of the few leaders to maintain warm relations with Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Any trip to Budapest would require Mr Putin to fly through the airspace of other EU countries.

Poland said on Oct 21 it could force Mr Putin’s plane down and arrest him on an international warrant if he flies over its territory, but Bulgaria said Mr Putin could use its airspace to reach the meeting. REUTERS