BRUSSELS — Ukraine and its European backers on Monday sought talks with U.S. President Trump in an effort to protect their security interests ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has so far been excluded from the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska on Friday, and the Europeans are unlikely to be invited. All are wary that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump might agree, without Ukraine’s participation, to land swaps of Ukraine’s territory or other terms that might favor Russia.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz organized a series of meetings for Wednesday. He invited Mr. Trump, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Mr. Zelenskyy, NATO’s chief and several European leaders to attend. The chancellery said the talks would focus on “further options for action to put pressure on Russia” as well as “preparations for possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security.”
The European Commission confirmed that President Ursula von der Leyen will take part “in the calls organized by Chancellor Merz.” The leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Italy and Poland are also set to join the “various discussion groups,” the chancellery said.
Ukraine and its backers in Europe insist that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin cannot decide on land swaps behind their backs at the summit, but the Europeans concede that Moscow is unlikely to give up control of Ukrainian land it holds.
“There’ll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody. To the good, for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff, not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday.
He did not confirm whether he would take part in the talks convened by Mr. Merz, but said: “I’m going to get everybody’s ideas” before meeting with Mr. Putin.
Concerns have mounted in Europe that Kyiv may be pressed to give up land or accept other curbs on its sovereignty. Ukraine and its European allies reject the notion that Mr. Putin should lay claim to any territory even before agreeing to a ceasefire. They want a ceasefire first.
In Europe, a “coalition of the willing” has been formed by countries ready to deploy troops to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mr. Merz are organizing a coalition meeting, also on Wednesday, to coordinate.
Poland is also part of that coalition. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said “it must be obvious to Poland and our European partners — and I hope to all of NATO — that state borders cannot be changed by force.” Any land swaps or peace terms “must be agreed upon with Ukraine’s participation,” he said, according to Polish news agency PAP.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the reality on the ground.
Russia in 2022 illegally annexed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine’s east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, even though it doesn’t fully control them. It also occupies the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.
On the 620-mile front line, Russia’s bigger army has made slow but costly progress with its summer offensive. The relentless pounding of urban areas has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to U.N. estimates.
“In the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table” in any peace talks after the Alaska summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on CBS on Sunday.
Rutte said Ukraine’s Western backers “can never accept that in a legal sense,” but he suggested that they might tacitly acknowledge Russian control.
He compared it to the way that the U.S. hosted the diplomatic missions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1940 to 1991, “acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting (it) in a legal sense.”
Giving up any territory, especially without a ceasefire agreement first, would be almost impossible for Mr. Zelenskyy to sell at home after thousands of troops have died defending their land.
Ultimately, Mr. Putin is seen by some analysts as being not so much interested in land itself, but rather in a more “Russia-friendly” Ukraine with a malleable government unlikely to try to join NATO, just as pro-Russian breakaway regions in Georgia have complicated that country’s quest to become a member.