European leaders issued cryptic remarks soon after meeting with President Volodmyr Zelensky in London on Monday.
BBC reported that no press conference was expected after the leaders gathered to address the revised Ukraine peace deal presented by the US, though a written statement is likely from the respective governments.
The talks are expected to focus on security guarantees for Kyiv and, potentially, on Kyiv’s territorial red lines – areas where Washington has been pressuring Ukraine to soften its stance.
Zelensky, writing on X, said “guaranteeing real security is always a shared challenge and a shared effort” and thanked his European colleagues.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who before the meeting expressed skepticism about “some of the details” seen in the US draft, issued a strong statement of solidarity on X after the meeting.
“Ukraine’s fate is Europe’s fate. We’re here to see how we can step up our efforts. No one should have any doubt: Our support will not falter,” Merz wrote.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have yet to issue a statement after the talks.
Zelensky was expected to travel to Brussels Monday evening for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and other top European officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to a NATO press release.
No press conference was expected from Brussels either.
Deepening transatlantic rift
European leaders have hinted at disagreement with the US’s push for the war’s end at Ukraine’s expense.
This visit comes after days of talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami, which ended on Saturday without a clear breakthrough.
But before the Downing Street meeting, Starmer had called for “hard-edged” security guarantees for Ukraine, while Macron said Kyiv’s allies have “a lot of cards” in their hands – a subtle jab at US President Donald Trump’s earlier analogy this year when he said Zelensky had no cards.
On Sunday, after another round of US-Ukraine talks, Trump once again pinned the blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Zelensky, saying Russia had agreed with the points of a peace plan which largely accord with Moscow’s goals, but claimed the Ukrainian leader “hasn’t yet read the proposal.” Kyiv denied the assertion.
Zelensky said on Monday that territorial redlines and security guarantees remain as challenges in the ongoing negotiations.
He said negotiators still lack a unified position on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, two regions where Russia has been unable to make significant military progress, and has demanded Kyiv’s troop withdrawal as a precondition for any agreement.
As for security guarantees, Russia has refused to accept any form of foreign troop deployments to Ukraine while calling for a personnel cap on Ukraine’s military – conditions that render it difficult for Europe to offer concrete guarantees.
Zelensky has warned that putting limits on Ukraine’s military could encourage Russia to invade Ukraine a third time.