European leaders comment on teleconference with Trump on Ukraine
(Reuters) -Donald Trump joined a teleconference with European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, two days before the U.S. leader is due to hold a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin on a possible peace deal for Ukraine.
Following are some quotes from the leaders following the call:
UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY
"Everything concerning Ukraine must be discussed only with Ukraine's participation. We must be preparing a trilateral format (along with Trump and Putin) for talks.
"A ceasefire must be the number one priority... There should be security guarantees. Truly reliable."
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON
"President Trump was very clear that the United States wanted to achieve a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska...
"The second point on which things were very clear, as expressed by President Trump, is that territories belonging to Ukraine cannot be negotiated and will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president."
"There are currently no serious territorial exchange schemes on the table."
GERMAN CHANCELLOR FRIEDRICH MERZ
"The principle that borders cannot be changed by force must continue to apply.
"Negotiations must include robust security guarantees for Kyiv. The Ukrainian armed forces must be able and remain able to effectively defend the sovereignty of their country. They must also be able to count on Western aid in the long term.
"Negotiations must be part of a common transatlantic strategy. Then they can ultimately be most likely to succeed. This strategy must continue to rely on strong support for Ukraine and necessary pressure against Russia. This also means, if there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States, we and Europeans should and must increase the pressure.
"President Trump knows this position, he shares it very extensively and therefore I can say: We have had a really exceptionally constructive and good conversation with each other."
(Reporting by Reuters bureauxCompiled by Gareth Jones)
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