BRUSSELS: European Union leaders on Tuesday urged US President Donald Trump to safeguard their security interests during his upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.
EU officials are anxious to influence Friday’s meeting, from which they have been excluded, and it remains uncertain whether Ukraine will participate. Trump has said he wants to gauge Putin’s willingness to end the four-year conflict but has unsettled European allies by suggesting Ukraine must cede some Russian-held territory and by floating the idea of land swaps, without clarifying what Moscow might surrender.
Fearing that Putin could secure favourable concessions without their input, EU leaders stressed that peace talks must include Ukraine. “The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,” they said, calling for a settlement that upholds international law, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the principle that borders cannot be altered by force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected giving up land for a ceasefire. Russia currently controls parts of four Ukrainian regions and European capitals worry that, if victorious, Putin could target others.
On Monday, Trump reiterated that “there’ll be some land swapping going on,” calling it “bad stuff for both” sides. His positive remarks about Putin, coupled with criticism of Zelenskyy, have unsettled Ukraine’s backers. Trump also announced plans to travel to Russia on Friday to meet Putin, though the summit will be held in Alaska — a former Russian territory sold to the US in 1867.
EU leaders will make another push to sway Trump at virtual talks hosted Wednesday by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, though Trump has not confirmed his participation. Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Putin’s closest ally in the EU, was the only one of the 27 leaders who refused to endorse the joint statement.
