European Union leaders appealed on Tuesday to President Trump to defend their security interests at a key summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later this week over the war in Ukraine.
Putin appeared to be on the verge of making a key territorial grab ahead of Friday’s summit, potentially to use as leverage in any peace negotiations. The Europeans are desperate to exert some influence over the meeting from which they have been sidelined. Mr. Trump has said that he wants to see whether Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year.
But Mr. Trump has disappointed U.S. allies in Europe by saying that Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He also said that Russia must accept land swaps, although it remains unclear what Putin might be expected to surrender.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office on Tuesday confirmed to CBS News that he will attend a virtual meeting with Mr. Trump and European leaders on Wednesday.
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.
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 on Tuesday, the leaders said that they “welcome the efforts of President Trump towards 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.
Zelenskyy said in a social media post Tuesday that “we all support President Trump’s determination, and together we must shape positions that will not allow Russia to deceive the world once again.”
The Ukrainian president has rejected the idea that Ukraine must commit to giving up land to secure a ceasefire. Russia holds shaky control over four of the country’s regions, two in the country’s east and two in the south.
“We see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war. On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “As long as they continue the war and occupation, all of us together must maintain our pressure — the pressure of strength, the pressure of sanctions, the pressure of diplomacy. I thank everyone who is helping. Peace through strength.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of Zelenskyy’s office, said anything short of Russia’s strategic defeat would mean that any ceasefire deal would be on Moscow’s terms, erode international law and send a dangerous signal to the world.
Putin’s ultimate goal is to “eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign state by dismantling its military, foreign policy and right to self-determination,” Podolyak said on Telegram.
In Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military training facility left one soldier dead and 11 others wounded, the Ukrainian Ground Forces posted on Telegram. Soldiers rushing to shelters were hit with cluster munitions, according to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
Meanwhile, Russia appeared close to taking an important city in the Donetsk region, as its forces were 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.
Ukraine’s military said its forces are fending off Russian infantry units trying to infiltrate their defensive positions in the Donetsk region. The region’s Ukrainian military command posted on Facebook Monday that enemy soldiers penetrating Ukrainian lines to capture more territory “face inevitable death” but acknowledges that the situation remains “difficult, unpleasant and dynamic.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump repeated that “there’ll be some land swapping going on.” He said that this would involve “some bad stuff for both” Ukraine and Russia. His seemingly public rehabilitation of Putin — a pariah in most of Europe — has unnerved Ukraine’s backers.
Mr. Trump was also critical of Zelenskyy, noting that Ukraine’s leader had 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 the Europeans were unsettled by Mr. Trump mistakenly saying twice he would be traveling to Russia on Friday to meet Putin. The summit is taking place in 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 Mr. Trump to Ukraine’s cause on Wednesday at virtual meetings convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Mr. Trump did not confirm whether he would take part, but he did say: “I’m going to get everybody’s ideas” before meeting with Putin.
Tuesday’s statement was also meant to be a demonstration of European unity. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is Putin’s closest ally in Europe and 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.
contributed to this report.