FROM LEFT: Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron during the meetings. (AFP)
London, UK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with top European leaders in London yesterday amid continuing public pressure from President Donald Trump that he accept a plan to halt Russia’s war in Ukraine on terms largely favorable to Moscow.
Trump over the weekend once again cast Kyiv as the obstacle to the American-championed proposal, accusing Zelensky of slow-walking the plan and not bothering to read it, even as Moscow has shown little, if any, willingness to compromise on its maximalist demands.
Trump’s continuing pressure, including his stern tone toward Ukraine and apparent openness to granting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial claims, has unnerved European capitals, heightening fears that Kyiv’s negotiating leverage is evaporating as Putin’s forces advance on the battlefield and Zelensky’s government remains consumed by a swirling corruption scandal.
Zelensky’s immediate priority in London is to meet with senior Ukrainian officials, including Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, who held detailed consultations in Miami with Trump’s envoys - developer Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, following their meeting with Putin in Moscow last week.
Zelensky said that some of the new information emerging in those talks required face-to-face consultation with his team. Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of not keeping up.
“Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it,” Trump told reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington on Sunday. “His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.” Ukraine and its European supporters, in fact, have voiced deep apprehension about Trump’s plan, which some said originally was so favorable to Russia they believed it had been drafted by the Kremlin. The Europeans and Ukrainians scrambled to propose changes, including removing provisions unacceptable to Kyiv or that would require broader approval by nations that belong to NATO or the European Union.
Zelensky met with the British, French and German leaders at 10 Downing Street to discuss security, including air defences, and financing for Ukraine’s long-term defence. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that any deal must include “hard-edged” security guarantees for Ukraine.
In a statement before the session, Zelensky called the ongoing dialogue with Witkoff and Kushner “constructive though not easy,” adding that “some issues can only be discussed in person.” The most difficult hurdles - including over territory and the possible surrender of land in Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russia has yet to seize militarily - have been reserved for Zelensky to handle.
“There are visions of the U.S., Russia and Ukraine, and we don’t have a unified view on Donbas,” Zelensky told Bloomberg News yesterday.
From London, the Ukrainian leader was expected to head on to meetings with NATO and E U leaders.
“There are some things which we can’t manage without Americans, things which we can’t manage without Europe,” Zelensky said in London. “That’s why we need to make some important decisions.” Kyiv is hoping to secure a firmer, coordinated Western response to Trump’s initiative. European leaders have voiced support for the U.S.-led diplomacy but are wary of any settlement that locks in Russia’s territorial gains, which they view as a redrawing of borders by force, or that leaves Ukraine without solid security guarantees to prevent another Russian attack.
In Ukraine, such an attack is viewed as nearly inevitable unless the country joins NATO. At least one version of Trump’s plan called for prohibiting Ukraine from joining the alliance.
European officials say they expect Zelensky to push for stronger positions on Russian sanctions, monitoring to keep Russia from cheating on ceasefire terms, and long-term military support.
