European leaders are holding fresh talks about security guarantee in Ukraine after their White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, amid uncertainty over Vladimir Putin’s readiness to meet the Ukrainian president.
The “coalition of the willing” will first meet virtually, co-chaired by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, before joining a video conference hosted by the European Council president, António Costa.
Europe’s flurry of diplomacy, after an unprecedented joint visit alongside Zelenskyy to the White House, is aimed at pushing Donald Trump to take a tougher line with Putin, days after their friendly summit in Alaska.
Trump said Putin had agreed to face-to-face talks with Zelenskyy in the coming weeks in an attempt to end the three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.
Macron proposed Geneva as a venue for the meeting, and a senior US official told Reuters that Hungary was also being considered.
However, Moscow has yet to confirm that any such meeting is in the works. The Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said only that Putin and Trump discussed the idea of “raising the level of representatives” in Ukraine talks.
At the heart of Tuesday’s talks among European allies is the question of what security guarantees can be offered to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy described security guarantees as “a key issue, a starting point towards ending the war” and appreciated Trump’s indication that the US was ready to be part of that guarantee.
Zelenskyy said those guarantees would be “formalised in some way in the next week or 10 days”, which could prove to be a long time when it comes to diplomacy involving Trump’s White House.
In a social media post late on Monday, Trump said the White House talks included plans for European countries to provide security assurances to Ukraine with the US acting as “coordinator”.
Britain and several European allies have floated the idea of a “reassurance force” that could be sent to Ukraine under a future peace deal to deter renewed Russian aggression.
Their plans would need firm US backing, and Trump has been resistant to deploying US troops as guarantors of any settlement.
Moscow has rejected any prospect of NATO personnel being deployed in Ukraine, stating that “we reaffirm our categorical opposition to any scenarios involving the stationing of a Nato contingent in Ukraine.”
Other proposals for security guarantees include western allies offering Ukraine article 5-style protection, similar to NATO’s collective defense pledge that treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
The gulf between Russia’s demands and Ukraine’s willingness to concede remains vast. Putin has demanded Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk, but Zelenskyy has set a firm red line against ceding land beyond the present occupation or legitimizing Moscow’s control.
Some observers say that for all the diplomatic maneuvering, there has been little real movement towards ending the war. “Nothing had happened in Anchorage on Aug. 15th.
Nothing happened yesterday in Washington DC,” Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador to the US, wrote on X. “Putin, Zelenskyy, and the European leaders were all relieved: they had avoided Trump taking unwelcome decisions. It was the triumph of empty vagueness and meaningless commitments.”
The situation highlights the complexity and challenges of finding a solution to the conflict in Ukraine, with both sides having different expectations and demands.
The diplomatic efforts continue, with European leaders working to find a way forward that would bring an end to the war and provide security guarantees for Ukraine.