European leaders are urging Donald Trump not to concede Ukrainian land to Russia. Photo / Getty Images
Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders will urge Donald Trump not to submit to Vladimir Putin’s demands for more Ukrainian concessions.
After Russia’s success at last week’s Alaska summit, the group will fly to Washington on Monday in an attempt to stiffen United States resolve in the peace talks.
Alongside Emmanuel Macron, the French President, and Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, Starmer will seek to minimise the risk of Volodymyr Zelenskyy being humiliated in the Oval Office again.
The meeting will be Zelenskyy’s first visit to the White House since February’s talks.
The European delegation – which includes Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister; Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President; and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general – will also push back on Putin’s demand for Zelenskyy to surrender the whole of the Donbas region, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine.
But the Trump administration said a discussion about the future of the mineral-rich region was needed and insisted “both sides” will need to make concessions.
On Sunday, Macron said the delegation’s will was to “present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians”, warning Trump: “There is only one state that proposes a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia”.
He added: “If we are weak with Moscow, we are preparing for tomorrow’s conflicts”.
European leaders have not explicitly called for all of Donetsk to remain Ukrainian, instead saying it was up to Zelenskyy to decide what to agree to on territory.
Zelenskyy pushed back on suggestions that he should be made to give up the entirety of the Donbas region, including land that Ukraine still holds. However, he opened the door to negotiations with Putin directly, saying any territorial changes should be discussed in a three-way meeting with the US.
“We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the frontline is now,” Zelenskyy said. “The contact line is the best line for talking and the Europeans support this.”
The Ukrainian President noted that the Russians were “still unsuccessful” in Donetsk, where Ukraine holds 30% of the land, and had failed to take the area in the 12 years that Putin had tried to seize control.
The request for face-to-face talks with Putin, which Moscow has consistently rejected, appears to be part of a wider European strategy to show Russia as the obstacle to peace.
In a joint press conference in Brussels on Sunday, Zelenskyy and Von der Leyen said Russia must stop attacking Ukraine before proper negotiations can progress, whether that is called a ceasefire or not.
The message represented an attempt to counter Trump’s public declaration that all sides should end the focus on a temporary ceasefire and move straight to establishing a permanent peace deal.
European leaders are wary of this position because it would allow Putin’s forces to seize more Ukrainian land while talks were ongoing.
However, senior figures in the Trump administration reinforced the President’s desire for talks over territory on Sunday.
Steve Witkoff, the US peace envoy who joined Trump and Putin for talks in Alaska, told CNN: “There is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there”.
Marco Rubio, who was also in Anchorage, told CBS News: “To reach the end of this conflict, both sides are going to have to make concessions. That’s just a fact.”
The US Secretary of State also backed away from previous US threats to sanction Putin if he failed to agree to a ceasefire, suggesting such a move would not keep him at the negotiating table.
European leaders praised the Trump administration after the President promised security guarantees to a Western-backed peacekeeping force in Ukraine once the fighting has ended.
Sir Keir and Macron are leading a group of 30 nations dubbed the “Coalition of the Willing” offering to help protect Ukrainian freedom if a peace deal is struck.
Under the plans, British military trainers and engineers would be sent into Ukraine alongside contributions from other nations after a ceasefire to rebuild the Ukrainian armed forces.
European planes, including Royal Air Force fighter jets, would also police the skies to deter any invasion.
Leaders have argued for months that the US would have to provide some form of security “backstop” to ensure that, in reality, Russia would be deterred from attacking again.
Some went public over the weekend thanking Trump for supposedly offering “Nato Article 5-like” guarantees in a call briefing them on the Putin summit.
Article 5 is a clause that agrees an attack on one Nato member is considered an attack on all.
Downing Street wants the White House to clarify what security guarantees it is offering, while Macron said he would ask the US “to what extent” it is ready to contribute.
However, Keir did not issue personal comments on Sunday, reflecting Downing Street’s strategy of trying to influence Trump behind closed doors rather than via megaphone diplomacy.
Senior figures in Downing Street have expressed regret over what they consider to have been their failure to help Zelenskyy prepare for February’s ill-fated meeting with Trump in Washington.
Zelenskyy arrived at the White House hoping to announce Ukraine had reached a minerals deal with the US.
But his Oval Office meeting with Trump descended into a shouting match after JD Vance, the vice-president, demanded that he show more gratitude after years of American support.
The Ukrainian President was eventually told to leave the White House and told by Trump to “come back when you’re ready for peace”.