BERLIN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Wednesday to join German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for talks with European and U.S. leaders ahead of the Trump-Putin summit later this week, the German government said.
Merz has convened a series of virtual meetings on Wednesday in an attempt to have the voice of European and Ukraine’s leaders heard ahead of a summit that they have been sidelined from.
Zelenskyy is due to meet with European leaders first, to prepare for a virtual call with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance about an hour later. A call between leaders involved in the “coalition of the willing” countries prepared to help police any future peace agreement will take place last.
Trump has said he wants to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Trump has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He also said Russia must accept land swaps, although it was unclear what Putin might be expected to surrender.
The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Putin, who has waged the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia’s energy might to try to intimidate the EU, might secure favorable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them.
European countries’ overarching fear is that Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that still it controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.
Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not give up any territory it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.
He said diplomatic discussions led by the U.S. focusing on ending the war have not addressed key Ukrainian demands, including security guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression and including Europe in negotiations.
Three weeks after Trump returned to office, his administration took the leverage of Ukraine’s NATO membership off the table — something that Putin has demanded — and signaled that the EU and Ukraine must handle security in Europe now while America focuses its attention elsewhere.
Trump has also routinely threatened and cajoled his NATO allies over defense spending, and has shown little mercy in trade talks by hiking tariffs on most EU imports to 5%, ostensibly for U.S. national security reasons.
Senior EU officials believe that Trump may be satisfied with simply securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, and is probably more interested in broader U.S. geostrategic interests and great power politics, aiming to ramp up business with Russia and rehabilitate Putin.
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Cook reported from Brussels.
