Europe will work with US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine despite scepticism over its viability, the three major European powers stated after a summit in London on Monday.
Following a two-hour meeting of the British, French, German and Ukrainian leaders in Downing Street, it concluded that they would continue to work on the US plan “with a view to complementing it with European contributions in close co-ordination with Ukraine”.
More importantly for Ukraine, which the deal demands gives up all its strategically valuable Donbas territory, the statement added that “work will be intensified to provide Ukraine with robust security guarantees” and also for reconstruction planning of the war-ravaged country.
Further discussions will be held with all the main parties, and a “convergence” of views is expected in the “coming days”.
Earlier Germany’s Chancellor has said he is “sceptical” about the US peace plan for Ukraine, under which significant amounts of territory would be ceded to Russia.
Speaking at a meeting of the three major European leaders plus President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Friedrich Merz cast doubt on the Washington plan, which would force Ukraine to surrender the remaining 15 per cent of the Donbas, a vital defensive area.
“I am sceptical of some of the details which we are seeing in documents coming from the US side, but we have to talk about it, that is why we are here,” he said in Downing Street before talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Emmanuel Macron and the Ukrainian leader.
“I think we have a lot of cards in our hands,” said Mr Macron, adding that the Ukrainians were resisting and that the Russian economy was “starting to suffer, especially after our latest sanctions and the US sanctions”.
Mr Starmer, who is hosting the London meeting referred to as the E3-Ukraine summit, said any peace deal would need to have “hard-edged” security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent Mr Putin from restarting the war.
But he did praise Mr Trump’s efforts in achieving peace suggesting in that in recent week “getting it this far, has been the furthest we’ve got in the four years”. He added that he hoped "we can make some further progress this afternoon”.
However, the White House continues to appear to take a pro-Russian stance on forcing Ukraine to give up territory in exchange for peace while it appears to have a taken a considerably more anti-centrist European stance.
With the Trump administration growing weary of the diplomacy required to find a resolution, there are fears Washington might withdraw intelligence sharing and arms support for Ukraine.
That would put pressure on the European powers to step in and bolster Ukraine’s defences if it does not want Russia’s aggression to be rewarded.
The London meeting also follows the publication of a new US national security strategy that made improving relations with the Kremlin one of Washington’s top priorities.
The strategy has been welcomed in Moscow. But the paper, which states that Europe faces “civilisational erasure”, with migration making it “majority non-European”, has not been warmly received in Berlin, Paris, London and other European capitals.
Mr Trump has increased the pressure on Mr Zelenskyy by alleging that he “isn’t ready” to sign the peace proposal.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Mr Trump said on Sunday evening.
Mr Zelenskyy stated on social media that his country was “determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace”.
Mr Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 metres” with just the two outstanding issues of Donbas and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to resolve.
Another important issue is the US security guarantees that would be in place to prevent Russia repeating its 2022 invasion, with Europe’s so-called 'coalition of the willing' wanting to place troops in Ukraine as a deterrent, something Mosow will not accept.
Mr Zelensky’s visit to London comes after his officials concluded three days of talks with US counterparts. But the negotiators acknowledged that any “real progress” will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace”.
Mr Starmer has repeatedly said that Ukraine must be allowed to determine its own future, while one of his senior ministers said on Sunday that the country must not be left “toothless” in the face of Russian aggression.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to attack Ukraine on Sunday, killing four civilians in drone and missile strikes.
