Preparing for Trump meeting: Europeans want to give Zelenskyy "some good advice"

After the summit between US President Trump and Kremlin leader Putin, the ball is in the court of the Ukrainians and their European allies. Chancellor Merz no longer wants to completely rule out territorial cessions. However, Putin's demands are unlikely to be acceptable to Zelensky.

Following the Ukraine summit between US President Donald Trump and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, European heads of state and government want to prevent politically unilateral decisions to the detriment of Kyiv. A video conference of the "coalition of the willing" is scheduled for Sunday, according to the Élysée Palace in Paris. This refers to Ukraine's allies who would be willing to support a peacekeeping mission. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to travel to Washington to meet with Trump on Monday.

Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for his largely diplomatically isolated guest at the meeting in Alaska – even though there is an international arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes. The two did not reveal any specific details of their discussions afterward. However, Trump retracted his previous demand for a ceasefire before any peace negotiations – thus aligning himself with Putin's line without the Russian president himself making any visible concessions.

While the worst-case scenario from the European perspective—a deal struck over the heads of the Ukrainians—did not become reality for the time being, the disillusionment following the intensive preliminary discussions—including with Trump—was clearly palpable. Putin, sitting at the podium next to his host, was able to emphasize once again that a stable peace requires the elimination of the root causes of the conflict, as he defines them. Trump left this unchallenged—and later emphasized in a TV interview that he advised Zelensky to agree to a "deal" with the militarily superior aggressor.

Putin allegedly demands complete Donbass

Particularly sensitive is the question of possible territorial cessions, which Kyiv has so far strictly rejected. According to US media, Putin has demanded that the entire Donbass region in eastern Ukraine be handed over to Russia. Trump passed this demand on to Zelensky, the Bloomberg news agency, the New York Times, and the news website Axios reported, all citing informed sources. Currently, Moscow only controls parts of the Donbass region.

After the summit, Trump informed the most important European heads of state and government on Saturday morning about his conversation with Putin. Fortunately, Trump did not question a single one of the five key points previously agreed upon by the Europeans and Zelensky, said Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a ZDF interview.

Merz no longer rules out territorial concessions

Meanwhile, the CDU chairman also considers peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia without a prior ceasefire to be justifiable – provided an agreement can be reached quickly. "If that succeeds, it will be worth more than a ceasefire that could potentially last for weeks – without further progress in political and diplomatic efforts."

The call also addressed possible territorial concessions to Russia, Merz said. He did not appear to rule out territorial cessions in return for an end to the Russian war of aggression: "No territorial concessions before there is a peace agreement," Merz outlined the requirement in an ARD program, "Brennpunkt." At the latest with such a peace agreement, security guarantees for Ukraine would also have to come into force. Merz described the fact that the US is also willing to participate in such security guarantees as good news.

However, the Chancellor also expressed some subtle criticism of the staging of the Alaska summit and the elevation of Putin. "It was a big report. The Russian press is cheering. A little less would have been enough."

Three-way meeting reportedly already planned for Friday

What happens next will likely depend largely on how Zelensky's visit to Washington goes—and what demands he faces there. In February, his meeting with Trump at the White House escalated in front of live cameras, forcing the Ukrainian to leave without accomplishing anything. As a result, the US temporarily suspended its vital military aid to Ukraine.

According to Merz, Zelensky's visit this time will be followed by a trilateral meeting with Trump and Putin, although a time and place for this meeting have not yet been set. According to an unconfirmed Axios report, the US president informed his European counterparts that he was aiming for such a meeting on Friday.

Merz doesn't expect Zelensky's visit to Washington to degenerate again this time. The European heads of state and government would give the Ukrainian president "some good advice" beforehand, the chancellor told RTL/ntv. "He also saw that my meeting with Donald Trump went very differently than his meeting. We've already discussed this in detail."