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 talks are expected to start on Sunday, involving national security advisers from Ukraine, the U.S., France, the U.K, Germany and the EU, according to the senior European official quoted above.
For the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s head of cabinet, Bjoern Seibert is expected to attend.