European leaders are now frantically working up counter-proposals to put to Trump in an effort to mitigate the worst of the U.S. plan, according to multiple officials familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
More than a dozen leaders including Germany’s Friedrich Merz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer, the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, Finland’s Alexander Stubb and Canada’s Mark Carney met for an urgent discussion at the G20 summit in Johannesburg to coordinate their response with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The draft is a basis which will require additional work,” the leaders said in a joint statement after discussing Trump’s plan. “We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force. We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.”
The leaders reiterated the “strength” of their continued support for Ukraine and insisted that any provisions in a peace deal that affected the EU or NATO would require proper “consent” from the members of these multinational blocs.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of the Ukrainian national defense and security council, confirmed earlier on Saturday that Ukraine planned to hold high-level talks with U.S. officials in Switzerland.
The main aim of Ukraine’s friends is to strengthen Zelenskyy’s position and ensure he has their public backing for whatever comes next. While none of Ukraine’s allies has been involved in drafting Trump’s plan or has said they think it is fair, they took care not to reject the 28-point blueprint outright, for fear of antagonizing the unpredictable American president.