US President Donald Trump says there will be “very severe consequences” if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to stop the Ukraine war after Friday’s summit.
Trump was “very clear” in a virtual meeting on Wednesday with European leaders that the US wants to achieve a ceasefire at the upcoming US-Russia summit in Alaska, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
In the same meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he told the group that Putin “is bluffing” ahead of the planned meeting with Trump.
Putin, Zelenskyy said, “is trying to apply pressure … on all sectors of the Ukrainian front” in an attempt to show that Russia is “capable of occupying all of Ukraine”.
Putin is also bluffing about sanctions, “as if they do not matter to him and are ineffective. In reality, sanctions are very helpful and are hitting Russia’s war economy hard,” Zelenskyy said.
Speaking after the video conference between Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders, Macron said Trump was prioritising a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. He added that Trump had been clear that “territorial issues relating to Ukraine … will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president”.
Following his meeting on Friday with the Russian leader, Trump will also “seek a future trilateral meeting” — one involving Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy, Macron said.
“I think that’s a very important point in this regard. And we hope that it can be held in Europe, in a neutral country that is acceptable to all parties,” Macron said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had convened the virtual meetings in an attempt to make sure European and Ukraine’s leaders are heard ahead of the summit, where Trump and Putin are expected to discuss a path toward ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, who traveled to Berlin on Wednesday to take part in the meetings, Merz described the meeting with Trump as “constructive” and said that “important decisions” could be made in Anchorage, but stressed that “fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests must be protected” at the summit.
Zelenskyy and the Europeans have been sidelined from that summit. German government spokesperson Steffen Meyer said the intention of Wednesday’s meetings was to “make clear the position of the Europeans”.
A call among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — was expected to take place later on Wednesday.
Before arriving in Berlin, Zelenskyy said his government has had more than 30 conversations with partners ahead of the summit in Alaska, but reiterated his doubt that Putin would negotiate in good faith.
Writing on his official Telegram channel, Zelenskyy said there was “currently no sign that the Russians are preparing to end the war”, and urged Ukraine’s partners in the United States and Europe to coordinate efforts and “force Russia to peace”.
“Pressure must be applied on Russia for an honest peace. We must take the experience of Ukraine and our partners to prevent deception by Russia,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump has said he wants to see whether Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year, describing Friday’s summit as “a feel-out meeting” where he can assess the Russian leader’s intentions.
Yet Trump has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He has also said Russia must accept land swaps, although it was unclear what Putin might be expected to surrender.
European allies have pushed for Ukraine’s involvement in any peace talks, fearful that discussions that exclude Kyiv could otherwise favour Moscow.
Trump on Monday ducked repeated chances to say that he would push for Zelenskyy to take part in his discussions with Putin, and was dismissive of Zelenskyy and his need to be part of an effort to seek peace. Trump said that following Friday’s summit, a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders could be arranged, or that it could also be a meeting with “Putin and Zelenskyy and me”.
The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Putin, who has waged the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia’s might to try to intimidate the European Union, might secure favourable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them.
The overarching fear of many European countries is that Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.
Land concessions a non-starter for Kyiv
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30 per cent of the Donetsk region that it still controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.
Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not give up any territory it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.
He said diplomatic discussions led by the US focusing on ending the war have not addressed key Ukrainian demands, including security guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression and including Europe in negotiations.
Three weeks after Trump returned to office, his administration took the leverage of Ukraine’s NATO membership off the table — something that Putin has demanded — and signaled that the EU and Ukraine must handle security in Europe now while America focuses its attention elsewhere.
Senior EU officials believe that Trump may be satisfied with simply securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, and is probably more interested in broader US geostrategic interests and great power politics, aiming to ramp up business with Russia and rehabilitate Putin.
Russian advances in Donbas
Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine have been closing in on a key territorial grab around the city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donbas region comprising Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland that Putin has long coveted.
Military analysts using open-source information to monitor the battles have said Ukraine’s ability to fend off those advances could be critical: Losing Pokrovsk would hand Russia an important victory ahead of the summit and could complicate Ukrainian supply lines to the Donetsk region, where the Kremlin has focused the bulk of military efforts.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck an oil pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region overnight on Wednesday, according to a statement from Ukraine’s General Staff.
Ukrainian drones struck the Unecha station which supplies the Russian army, the statement said, adding that damage and a large fire was reported in the area around the pumping station.
Unecha transports oil to two pipelines with an annual capacity to pump 60 million tonnes. The operation was carried out by units of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine’s army and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defence Ministry, the statement said.
