Europe pushes for Ukraine role in Trump-Putin talks
The two leaders will meet in the US state of Alaska Friday to try to resolve the three-year war, but Europe has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any deal to end the conflict.
EU foreign ministers will discuss the next steps before the talks in a meeting by video link on Monday, joined by their Ukrainian counterpart.
The idea of a US-Russia meeting without Zelensky has raised concerns that a deal would require Kyiv to cede swathes of territory, which the EU has rejected.
"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.
In a flurry of diplomacy, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days including Kyiv's main backers Germany, Britain and France.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday he hoped and assumed that Zelensky would attend the leaders' summit.
Leaders of the Nordic and Baltic countries -- Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden -- also said no decisions should be taken without Kyiv's involvement.
Talks on ending the war could only take place during a ceasefire, they added in a joint statement.
- 'Testing Putin' -
Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said any deal between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine had to include Kyiv and the bloc.
"President Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine," Kallas said in a statement Sunday.
"The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine's and the whole of Europe's security," she added.
"I will convene an extraordinary meeting of the EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss our next steps."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga will also take part in the Monday afternoon meeting, the ministry said.
NATO head Mark Rutte told ABC's This Week broadcast on Sunday that Trump was "putting pressure on Putin".
"Next Friday will be important because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end," he added.
Ukraine's military said on Sunday it had taken back a village in the Sumy region from the Russian army which has made significant recent gains.
The village is on the frontline in the north of the country and about 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of the main fighting between the two armies in the northern region.
- A 'just peace' -
As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow has demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.
Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.
The EU's Kallas backed Kyiv's position on Sunday.
"As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine," the EU foreign policy chief said.
NATO's Rutte said it was a reality that "Russia is controlling some of Ukrainian territory" and suggested a future deal could acknowledge this.
"When it comes to acknowledging, for example, maybe in a future deal, that Russia is controlling, de facto, factually, some of the territory of Ukraine. It has to be effectual recognition and not a political de jure recognition," Rutte told ABC's This Week.
Zelensky thanked those countries backing Ukraine's position in his Sunday evening address.
"The war must be ended as soon as possible with a fair peace," he said. "A fair peace is needed.
"Clear support for the fact that everything concerning Ukraine must be decided with Ukraine's participation. Just as it should be with every other independent state."
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New York Post
4 minutes ago
- New York Post
Zelensky says Putin wants remainder of Ukraine's Donetsk region in potential cease-fire deal
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San Francisco Chronicle
4 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
You really can see Russia from Alaska, and other things to know ahead of Friday's Trump-Putin summit
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CNN
4 minutes ago
- CNN
Analysis: Trump gets what he wants in DC crackdown as Democrats fumble response
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It also underscored how Democrats are hampered by the lack of their own powerful figurehead. Nine months after the last election and 14 before the next one, the party has no one with the skill to parry Trump's flood-the-zone presidency. Once-in-a-generation communicators like presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had the capacity to shape language and positions appealing to multiple constituencies at once. Party lawmakers and candidates then adopted the messaging as their own. Great politicians are teachers; they intuit the electorate's emotions and fears and shape persuasive arguments and policy. But such linguistic dexterity was missing in initial Democratic reactions to the Trump crime surge. Most party leaders raced to proclaim yet another power grab by a wannabe dictator rather than touching on the perils of violent crime. 'For all the talk Republicans give about giving their localities their rights, where are they now?' Senate House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X, saying the crackdown was merely an attempt to detract from Trump scandals. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on the same site that 'the crime scene in D.C. most damaging to everyday Americans is at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.' Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told CNN's Kasie Hunt on Monday that Trump wasn't reacting to a 'real emergency' but was instead trying to deflect from his past ties to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 'He doesn't want to release the Epstein files. So, he wants everybody to look in another direction,' Raskin said. And a group of Democratic lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia warned of the 'soft launch of authoritarianism.' They noted that crime was still too high for those victimized in the final sentence of a long statement. None of these arguments are necessarily wrong. But by focusing first on Trump's repressive motives, they do not immediately address voter concerns over safety. 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Nationwide protests pushed the party to the left amid outrage at police brutality and a justice system that often fails Black Americans. But when some progressive activists demanded the defunding of the police, they handed a priceless political weapon to Republicans and alienated many moderates and independents. This is not a new problem. President Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Joe Biden seemed to have found the answer to the left's vulnerability on law and order in the 1990s by writing crime bills that boosted law enforcement funding, expanded the death penalty and mandated life in prison for criminals with three or more felony convictions. This insulated Democrats from conservative claims that they were weak on crime. But the bills had unintended consequences. They ushered in an era of mass incarceration in which Black Americans were disproportionately condemned to life in overcrowded prisons for comparatively minor offenses. The political impact was corrosive, haunting then-candidate Hillary Clinton in her 2016 primary campaign and Biden in his 2020 White House bid. This week is a reminder that Democrats are still vulnerable to the classic GOP law-and-order gambit deployed by Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and most ruthlessly by Trump. It's far easier to demonize criminals than to produce real solutions. But Democrats need to come up with something before 2028. Their position is similar to that of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a political communicator on the same plane as Bill Clinton. As opposition leader, Blair needed to win over Britons who wanted more law enforcement while reassuring core Labour Party voters concerned with the socioeconomic origins of crime. He became known for a slogan — 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' — that positioned him as a new kind of progressive politician with a strong appeal to the critical center. It stole the Conservative Party's tough-on-crime mantra and helped win the 1997 election. The Democrats' best hope of a similar act of triangulation might lie with its governors, some of whom may run for president in 2028, and who are already experienced at the executive level of the nuances of addressing crime. One of their number, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday that Trump was using the military 'as a cudgel and as a tool to be able to advance his political purposes.' Moore said Trump should emulate methods which he said had reduced homicides and other violent crimes in Baltimore. 'I did it without ever having to once operationalize our National Guard to do municipal policing,' Moore said. While Democratic responses to Trump were politically ineffective, they were often based in truth. Raskin, for instance, pointed out that the Trump's claim to be a champion of the law was absurd. The largest mass crime event in recent years in Washington, DC, was precipitated by the president — the mob assault by supporters he incited against the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Maryland Democrat argued that if Trump were serious about law and order, 'he would not have pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists and violent cop beaters.' By sending National Guard soldiers into the streets in the absence of a crisis, Trump really is adopting the intimidatory tactics of strongman leaders. Some critics worry that his federalization of the capital police force is a test run for a later authoritarian takeover of the city. And the president may also foment lawlessness with his warning that cops could 'do whatever they hell they want.' If Trump really wanted to improve conditions in Washington, he might reverse the GOP-led Congress's $1 billion budget cut to the city that local officials warn will hit public schools, public safety and an overstretched police department. And does the White House have any long-term plans beyond window dressing and shows of force? White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said that homeless people in the city had a choice of shelters, addiction and mental health services, 'or jail.' She had no specifics on any new administration housing or social services options or long-term care and solutions. But Trump already has what he wants. Military vehicles lined up Wednesday night near the Washington Monument in a striking image that captured his obsession with military projection and the challenges to US founding values his actions represent.
