European leaders seek talks with Trump before Putin meeting, Bloomberg reports
European leaders are seeking to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump before his planned meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska later this week, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 10, citing people familiar with the matter.
The outreach comes ahead of the Trump-Putin talks scheduled for Aug. 15 and follows a weekend of diplomacy between U.S., Ukrainian, and European officials. Vice President JD Vance met with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in the U.K. on Aug. 9, and EU ambassadors were briefed on the discussions a day later.
The bloc’s foreign ministers are due to hold a virtual meeting on Aug. 11, according to Bloomberg.
As part of ongoing U.S.-Russia discussions, Putin told special envoy Steve Wikoff during an Aug. 6 meeting that Russia would agree to a full ceasefire if Kyiv withdrew its forces from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, granting Moscow full control of those partly occupied regions as well as Crimea.
President Volodymyr Zelensky strongly rejected on Aug. 9 the idea of ceding any Ukrainian territory to end Russia's war, with talks on the proposal beginning in the U.K. with U.S., Ukrainian, and EU officials on Aug. 9.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told ABC’s This Week on Aug. 10 that any agreement would “have to be on the table” in terms of territory, along with security guarantees for Ukraine. He suggested this could mean Kyiv acknowledging the loss of control over certain areas without formally renouncing sovereignty.
Ukraine and its European allies are instead pushing for a ceasefire based on the current front line as a first step toward a broader settlement, combined with continued economic pressure on Moscow. European leaders reiterated over the weekend that “international borders must not be changed by force” and that “the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”
According to Bloomberg, the potential deal discussed between Washington and Moscow would see Russian forces halt their offensive in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts along existing battle lines. However, it remains unclear whether Moscow would agree to relinquish any occupied territory, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is the largest in Europe.
Putin has maintained his war aims, which include Ukraine adopting neutral status, abandoning its NATO aspirations, and accepting the loss of Crimea and four other regions Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022.
