BERLIN: European leaders will hold online talks with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Aug 13), hoping to convince him to respect Ukraine’s interests when he discusses the war with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as the French, British and other European leaders and the heads of the EU and NATO to an afternoon video conference.
They are then expected to talk to Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a second round of the conference call.
The Trump-Putin meeting on Friday – their first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago – is so far planned to go ahead without Zelenskyy.
This has fuelled fears Kyiv could be forced into painful concessions, including over land.
EU leaders stressed on Tuesday “the inherent right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny”, adding that “international borders must not be changed by force”.
Zelenskyy, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, ruled out withdrawing troops from the Donbas region which Moscow claims.
Merz’s office said the conference call would discuss “further options to exert pressure on Russia” and “preparation of possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security”.
The talks would include leaders from “Finland, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, the heads of the European Commission and Council, the secretary general of NATO, as well as the US president and his deputy”, Berlin said on Monday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Merz are then also set to hold a round of talks of the so-called Coalition of the Willing of Ukraine’s military backers.
