European Leaders and Ukraine Call for Peace Talks at Current Frontline

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European Leaders and Ukraine Call for Peace Talks at Current Frontline
Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/TT

The frontline in Ukraine should be the starting point in a peace negotiation, announces a gathering of European leaders together with Ukraine's president. It can open up for Russia to continue controlling parts of Ukraine, which Donald Trump has spoken of as a necessity.

Eight European countries' leaders, the EU's highest representatives and Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyj write in a joint statement under the US president Donald Trump's wish for an immediate ceasefire.

In continued negotiations for a peace solution, they believe that "the current contact line should be the starting point". But they also add the following reservation:

"We stand firm on the principle that international borders should not be changed with violence."

Donald Trump has urged the parties to end the fighting and "stay where they are" at present, but also claimed that eastern Ukraine should be "divided up". It is then unclear whether a de facto ceasefire line in a ceasefire could become a de jure change in the countries' borders, but Ukraine and the European leaders explicitly oppose the latter.

"Let it be divided up"

Besides the Crimean peninsula, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014, parts of four Ukrainian regions are under Russian occupation. Russia claims to have annexed all four in their entirety since autumn 2022, but they do not control them completely and fighting continues.

Last Sunday, the US president Trump said that the Donbass area in Ukraine – with the two affected regions Donetsk and Luhansk – will need to be "divided up" so that Russia can keep the larger part.

Let it be divided up as it is. It is already divided now, said Trump.

They can negotiate about something later.

Conflicting messages

Earlier last week, Ukraine's president visited Washington DC. When Volodymyr Zelenskyj met Donald Trump, many believed that there would be announcements about new, more advanced robot deliveries to Ukraine to put pressure on Russia.

Such an announcement did not come. Trump, who had spoken on the phone with Russia's president Vladimir Putin before the meeting, is said to have again suggested major Ukrainian concessions to the Russians. Putin "will take something" of what has been conquered, said the American president in a TV interview.

"Russia's delaying tactics have shown time and time again that Ukraine is the only party that means business with peace. We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction", the European leaders, including Zelenskyj, write.

Therefore, Ukraine must be given the strongest possible position in the negotiations and in a future ceasefire, they emphasize, and promise continued measures to increase the pressure on Putin.

The following leaders have signed the European and Ukrainian response:

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyj

France's president Emmanuel Macron

Germany's chancellor Friedrich Merz

Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni

The UK's prime minister Keir Starmer

Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk

The European Commission's president Ursula von der Leyen

The EU Council's president António Costa

Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen

Finland's president Alexander Stubb

Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers

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