Germany’s Merz says ‘obvious’ Putin-Zelensky meeting won’t happen

TOULON, France – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Aug 28 it was now “obvious” that a hoped-for meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky would not happen.

Speaking beside French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Merz said their Cabinets would talk about the Ukraine war “in light of the fact that there will obviously not be a meeting between President Zelensky and President Putin, unlike what was agreed between President Trump and President Putin last week when we were together in Washington”.

Mr Merz, Mr Macron and other European leaders travelled to Washington on Aug 18 with Mr Zelensky to meet Mr Trump at the White House to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Macron welcomed Mr Merz for a working dinner on Aug 28 at Bregancon Fort in southern France, where the leaders gave a statement to the press before their meeting.

Mr Merz said he and Mr Macron would hold bilateral discussions on several topics, including economic collaboration between the two countries, the situation between Ukraine and Russia, and the de-bureaucratisation of Europe.

The White House had previously said it believed Mr Putin agreed to a meeting with the Ukrainian president, and that planning was “under way.” But the Kremlin never confirmed its commitment and

no summit has yet been scheduled.

On Aug 25, Mr Trump conceded he didn’t “know that they will meet.”

Mr Trump said earlier this week that he spoke with Mr Putin and that he believed the Russian president’s dislike of Mr Zelensky was holding up a meeting between the two leaders.

Russia unleashed

a new wave of drone and missile strikes

on Kyiv overnight on Aug 28, in defiance of US calls for an end to the fighting. 

Twenty-one people were pronounced dead after a Russian air attack destroyed an apartment building in Kyiv, local authorities said late on Aug 28. Search-and-rescue work is under way, they said, indicating there could be more people under ruins.

A European Union office in the capital also was damaged in the strike.

Mr Merz earlier on Aug 28 condemned the attack. “Russia showed its true face again at night,” Mr Merz wrote on X. “The fact that the EU representation has now also become a target testifies to the growing unscrupulousness of the Russian regime.” 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said

Mr Trump was “not happy”

but “also not surprised” about the latest Russian strikes.

“These are two countries that have been at war for a very long time,” she told reporters on Aug 28. “Russia launched this attack on Kyiv, and likewise, Ukraine recently dealt a blow to Russia’s oil refineries,” capping attacks made throughout August. 

Ms Leavitt’s comments, as well as a social media post earlier on Aug 28 in which US envoy Keith Kellogg said the attacks were “egregious” and threatened peacemaking efforts, illustrate the US administration’s heightened frustration with Mr Putin on a conflict that Mr Trump had initially pledged to resolve on his first day back in office.

On Aug 29, senior Ukrainian officials including Mr Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, are expected to travel to the US to exchange ideas on post-war security with members of the Trump administration. Even so, the pressure from earlier conversations seems to have waned. 

“Nothing happened, because Putin has no interest in seeing Zelensky – he has a great interest in avoiding sanctions,” said Mr John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

On Aug 26, Mr Trump warned of “an economic war” if Russia and Ukraine did not end their conflict, saying he had “very serious” consequences in mind if the fighting continues. AFP, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG