U.S. President Donald Trump will join European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for an emergency virtual summit on Wednesday, according to Politico.
The meeting, organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, comes ahead of a Trump–Putin summit in Alaska on Friday, where the war in Ukraine will be the central topic.
According to a German government spokesperson, the virtual summit will focus on:
- Pressure options on Russia
- Territorial disputes over occupied Ukrainian lands
- Security guarantees for Kyiv
- Sequencing of potential peace negotiations
Merz and other European leaders insist that Russian President Vladimir Putin must agree to a ceasefire before any peace talks or territorial exchanges take place. They have also stressed that any territorial deal must be balanced, agreed with Kyiv, and accompanied by strong security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future aggression.
Diplomatic sources told Politico that Merz’s team has been holding intensive talks with other capitals to coordinate the virtual meeting. On Sunday evening, Merz spoke directly with Trump, urging him to increase pressure on Moscow by imposing sanctions on Russia’s banking sector and introducing secondary sanctions on Russia’s trade partners.
