European Union leaders urged U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to safeguard their security interests ahead of his high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week, focused on the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Europeans are eager to assert influence over the Friday meeting, from which they have largely been excluded. It remains uncertain whether Ukraine will even participate. Trump has said he wants to assess if Putin is serious about ending the conflict, now entering its fourth year.
However, Trump has unsettled U.S. allies by suggesting Ukraine may need to concede some Russian-held territory. He also indicated that Russia must agree to land swaps, though details of what Putin might be expected to give up remain unclear.
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 cow the EU, might secure favorable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them.
The overarching fear for European countries is that Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.
In a statement early Tuesday, the leaders said they “welcome the efforts of President Trump toward ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.” But they underlined, “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
“A just and lasting peace that brings stability and security must respect international law, including the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and that international borders must not be changed by force,” they said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the idea that Ukraine must commit to give up land to secure a cease-fire. Russia holds shaky control over four of the country’s regions – two in the east and two in the south.
In Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military training facility left one soldier dead and 11 others wounded, the Ukrainian Ground Forces said on Telegram. Soldiers rushing to shelters were hit with cluster munitions, according to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
Meanwhile, Russia appeared to be on the verge of taking an important city in the Donetsk region, with its forces reported to be rapidly infiltrating positions north of Pokrovsk.
Military analysts using open-source information to monitor the battles say the next 24-48 hours could be critical. Losing Pokrovsk would hand Russia an important battlefield victory ahead of the summit. It would also complicate Ukrainian supply lines to the Donetsk region, where the Kremlin has focused the bulk of its military efforts.
“A lot will depend on availability, quantity and quality of Ukrainian reserves,” Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, wrote in a post on X late Monday.
On Monday, Trump repeated that “there’ll be some land swapping going on.” He said this would involve “some bad stuff for both” Ukraine and Russia. His public rehabilitation of Putin – a pariah in most of Europe – has unnerved Ukraine’s backers.
Trump was also critical of Zelenskyy, noting that Ukraine’s leader has been in power for the duration of the war and said “nothing happened” during that time. He contrasted that with Putin, who has wielded power unchallenged in Russia for decades.
It’s unclear whether Europeans were unsettled by Trump’s assertion that he would be traveling to Russia on Friday to meet Putin.
The summit is taking place in the U.S. state of Alaska, which was colonized by Russia in the 18th century until Czar Alexander II sold it to the U.S. in a land deal in 1867.
The Europeans will make a fresh attempt to rally Trump to Ukraine’s cause Wednesday at virtual meetings convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Trump did not confirm whether he would take part but said, “I’m going to get everybody’s ideas” before meeting with Putin.
Tuesday’s statement was also meant to demonstrate European unity. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Putin’s closest ally in Europe who has tried to block EU support for Ukraine, did not endorse it. He was the only one of the bloc’s 27 leaders who refused to do so.
