Macron, Merz, Meloni to join Zelensky for Trump talks

BRUSSELS: European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington on Monday seeking an end to Moscow’s invasion, after President Donald Trump dropped his push for a ceasefire following his Alaska summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — the E3 leaders — are among those travelling to Washington for the purpose.

Other leaders on the list are British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb,  EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte have their plans for the Washington visit so far.

CEASEFIRE NO MORE A PRIORITY

Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the Kremlin ordered the invasion, had been one of Trump’s core demands before the summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.

Read more: US, Russia eye truce deal that will cement Putin’s gains in Ukraine

But after a meeting that yielded no clear breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine — a move that would appear to favor Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.

Ukraine and its European allies have criticised it as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances.

Ahead of the Washington visit on Monday, von der Leyen said on X she would welcome Zelensky for a meeting in Brussels on Sunday which other European leaders would join by video call, before accompanying the Ukrainian leader on his US trip at his “request” with “other European leaders.”

Trump briefed Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back from Alaska to Washington, saying afterwards that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement which would end the war.”

Read more: World leaders react to Trump-Putin meeting sans deal on Ukraine

Ceasefire agreements “often times do not hold up,” Trump added on his Truth Social platform.

But Zelensky has appeared unconvinced by the change of tack, saying on Saturday that it “complicates the situation.”

If Moscow lacks “the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater — peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades,” he said on social media.

LAND SWAP

Trump expressed support during his call with Zelensky and European leaders for a proposal by Putin to take full control of two largely Russian-held Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others, an official briefed on the talks told AFP.

Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas,” an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, 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.

Read more: Zelensky rules out ceding Donbas to Russia in any deal

Trump notably also said the United States was prepared to provide Ukraine security guarantees, an assurance Merz hailed as “significant progress.”

But there was a scathing assessment of the summit outcome from the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who accused Putin of seeking to “drag out negotiations” with no commitment to end the bloodshed.

“The harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon,” Kallas said.

Hence, the main diplomatic focus now switches to Zelensky’s talks at the White House on Monday.

The Ukrainian president’s last Oval Office visit in February ended in an extraordinary shouting match, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berating Zelensky for not showing enough gratitude for US aid.

‘ONUS NOW ON ZELENKSY’

In an interview with broadcaster Fox News after his sit-down with Putin, Trump had suggested that the onus was now on Zelensky to secure a peace deal as they work toward an eventual trilateral summit with Putin.

“It’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” Trump said.

In an earlier statement, European leaders welcomed the plan for a Trump-Putin-Zelensky summit but added that they would maintain pressure on Russia in the absence of a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine raged on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other Sunday.

Back in Moscow, Putin said his summit talks with Trump had been “timely” and “very useful.”

In his post-summit statement in Alaska, Putin had warned Ukraine and European countries not to engage in any “behind-the-scenes intrigues” that could disrupt what he called “this emerging progress.”