European leaders to join Zelensky for Ukraine talks with Trump
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EC President Ursula von der Leyen in a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Aug 17 in Brussels before they head to Washington, DC.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BRUSSELS - European leaders said on Aug 17 they would join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on Aug 18, as they try to find a way to end Russia’s offensive.
Mr Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed the news but Mr Zelensky, speaking alongside her at a news conference in Brussels, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Mr Putin’s thoughts, because Mr Putin will not give any security guarantees,” he said.
Mr Zelensky later said on social media that the US offer regarding security guarantees was “historic”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who will take part in the Washington meeting along with Dr von der Leyen and others, said European leaders would ask Washington “to what extent” they were ready to contribute to the security guarantees offered to Ukraine in any peace agreement.
Mr Trump, who pivoted after the Alaska meeting to say he was now seeking a peace deal rather than a ceasefire, on Aug 17 posted “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!” on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Hopes for ‘productive meeting’
Mr Trump’s pivot to a peace deal aligns with the stance long taken by Mr Putin, one which Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as Mr Putin’s way to buy time while trying to make battlefield gains.
Mr Zelensky also said he saw “no sign” the Kremlin leader was prepared to meet him and Mr Trump for a three-way summit, as had been floated by the US president.
The leaders heading to Washington on Aug 18 to appear alongside Mr Zelensky call themselves the “coalition of the willing”.
As well as Dr von der Leyen and Mr Macron, they include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Also heading to Washington will be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who get on well with Mr Trump.
On Aug 17 they all held a video meeting to prepare their joint position.
Speaking to US broadcaster CNN, Mr Witkoff said: “I’m hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we’re able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to NBC on Aug 17, warned of “consequences” – including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia – if no peace deal was reached on Ukraine.
Territorial ‘concessions’
European leaders have expressed unease from the outset over Mr Trump’s outreach to Mr Putin, who has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join the EU or Nato. They were excluded from Mr Trump’s summit with Mr Putin.
Mr Witkoff, in his CNN interview, said the the process of offering “game-changing” security guarantees would involve territorial “concessions”.
According to an official briefed on a call Mr Trump held with Mr Zelensky and European leaders as he flew back from Alaska, the US leader supported a Putin proposal that Russia take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others.
Mr Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas”, an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia currently only partly controls, the source said.
In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.
Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them.
“The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine rages on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other on Aug 17. AFP
