European leaders call for Ukraine’s involvement peace summit
By Stefan J. Bos
Speaking before a bilateral meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders scheduled for Friday in Alaska, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he hoped and presumed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would also be involved.
Merz told German media that Berlin was working closely with Washington to ensure Zelenskyy’s attendance at the talks.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, echoed that sentiment, saying that " any deal between the U.S. and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance stressed Sunday that the Trump administration’s goal remains to bring both the Ukrainian and Russian leaders to the negotiating table. “Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelenskyy, the head of Ukraine. Fundamentally, this is something where the president needs to force, President Putin and President Zelenskyy really to sit down to figure out their differences,” he said.
However, there is concern that U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal without Kyiv’s approval. Trump’s former security adviser, John Bolton, says Friday’s Trump-Putin summit puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in a tough position. “I think that by already pre-negotiating part of the Putin plan, Zelenskyy is being put in a position where he's being presented with something that Trump may feel very comfortable with, and then you could be back closer to where we were in February during the famous debacle in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy,” Bolton stressed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky already warned that Ukrainians, in his words, “will not give their land to occupiers", adding that any solution without Ukraine would be "against peace". Britain said Monday that Ukraine’s borders are only for Ukraine to determine, and that any peace deal must be built with its involvement.
However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the U.S. pledged to consult with European partners Monday before Friday’s summit
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