Zelensky, EU leaders share their thoughts with Trump

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky took part in video calls with a host of European leaders and United States President Donald Trump on a visit to Berlin on Wednesday, in the run-up to Trump's face-to-face meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Trump and Putin will meet in Alaska for a summit aimed at bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which during his election campaign in 2024, Trump said he would resolve on the first day that he was back in office.

It will be the first time they have met in person since 2019, in Japan during Trump's first term as president.

Before his call to the US president, Zelensky spoke to European leaders including his host, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, France's President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Mark Rutte, secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, who all expressed European solidarity with Ukraine over the conflict.

"We welcome the efforts of President Trump to reach peace for Ukraine, a peace that is just and lasting and respects sovereignty and territorial integrity," said a European Commission spokesperson on Tuesday. "And in this sense, we are working with Ukraine to make sure that this is kept in mind in the meeting on Friday."

Trump said that "out of respect I'll call (Zelensky) first" after the Alaska talks conclude, but, once again, the Ukrainian leader will not be directly involved.

The repeated near-unanimous view of the European Union is that no deal can be made without the involvement of Ukraine, and that "international borders must not be changed by force".

The only nation among the 27 members of the EU that does not back Ukraine in this way is Hungary.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on social media that "Hungary has been advocating a ceasefire and peace talks for 3.5 years. Ukraine would have been better off if Zelensky had done the same. Hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved and millions spared from fleeing their homes."

Neil Melvin, director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute, told the Euronews website: "Unable to bring much to the negotiations, European leaders have been relegated to the margins, with the EU seen by Trump and Putin as largely irrelevant.

"European leaders are able to inform Trump of their ideas, and the US will brief them on the summit outcomes, but Europe is in the position that the Ukraine conflict outcomes are being negotiated over its head, and the continent's leadership is essentially an observer."

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com