Ukraine-US talks in Berlin end as territorial disputes unresolved – Europe live | Europe
US negotiators still want Ukraine to cede control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for peace talks with Russia, an official briefed on the discussions told AFP on Monday.
Kyiv is pushing back against Washington’s demand that it pull troops from the two regions collectively known as Donbas, which Russia has been unable to capture since invading in February 2022.
Russian president Vladimir Putin “wants territory,” the official told AFP, adding the United States was demanding that Ukraine “withdraw” from the regions and that Kyiv was refusing.
“It’s a bit striking that the Americans are taking the Russians’ position on this issue,” the official added.
Moscow controls almost all of the Luhansk region and about 80 percent of the Donetsk region, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
But a poll by published today by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) based on 550 responses showed that 75 percent of Ukrainians oppose giving up Donbas.
Key events
Ukraine-US talks in Berlin end, Zelenskyy’s office says
We’re just getting a line from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, via Reuters, that the Ukraine-US talks in Berlin have just ended.
Zelenskyy has a busy bilateral agenda in Berlin too, with further meetings expected with German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Bundestag speaker Julia Klöckner before popping into a meeting of the German-Ukrainian Economic Forum and further talks and a press conference with chancellor Friedrich Merz.
And after all of that, he will still have the evening dinner with European leaders to attend.
Nato’s Rutte to attend Berlin talks, alliance confirms
And in the last few minutes, Nato has also confirmed that its secretary general, Mark Rutte, will also be in Berlin.
EU’s von der Leyen to attend Berlin talks, commission confirms
Separately, the commission’s deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill has just confirmed that commission president Ursula von der Leyen will attend the Berlin talks this evening.
Not a surprise at all, but good to have it formally confirmed.
The European Commission has essentially declined to offer running commentary on the on-going talks on using frozen Russian assets at its midday press briefing just now.
Asked about the issue, EU’s economy spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said the EU had proposed “two fundamental solutions” in the reparations loan and the alternative joint borrowing, and “it is on this basis that we are continuing the exchanges and discussions” ahead of this week’s European Council summit.
“We have two solutions put forward, which would ensure that in 2026 and 2027 Ukraine has the financing it needs. It is true that, according to what we see and if you look at the figures, the very beginning of the year, Ukraine appears to be covered by and large, and then as of the early spring, the new solutions could come into place. So this is the agenda that we have in mind, and that’s what sort of characterises our way of thinking on the on the timeline,” he said.
US invited to this evening talks between Zelenskyy and European leaders, Germany says
We are also getting a line from the German government’s spokesperson, saying that the US representatives have also been invited to this evening’s talks between Zelenskyy and a number of European leaders in Berlin.
Let’s see how it unfolds.
Ukraine-US talks restart on second day – report
Ukrainian negotiators have now started a second round of peace talks in Berlin with their US counterparts, according to a Reuters source familiar with the matter.
Moving ahead with EU plan to fund Ukraine using frozen Russian assets ‘won’t be very easy,’ EU foreign policy chief says amid Belgium’s opposition
Jennifer Rankin
in Brussels
The EU’s foreign policy chief has said it would not be easy to move forward with the Russian frozen assets plan to finance Ukraine without the say-so of Belgium, which holds most of the Kremlin’s money.
Kaja Kallas came close to suggesting Belgium had an effective veto over the decision on whether to use €210bn Russian frozen assets to finance Ukraine. The decision, to be taken by EU leaders on Thursday, requires only a weighted majority of EU countries: 55% of EU member states representing 65% of the population.
Days after Donald Trump denounced European leaders as “weak”, the EU faces a make-or-break week, with the decision on funding Kyiv a crucial test of its resolve on Ukraine.
But Kallas suggested EU backers of the frozen assets plan would be reluctant to outvote Belgium, which holds €185bn of the assets at the Euroclear central securities depository in Brussels.
“Of course, we have the QMV decision, but without Belgium, I think it would be increasingly… it wouldn’t be very easy because they have the majority of the assets. And I think it is important that they are on board whatever we do.”
Belgium, backed by Bulgaria, Italy and Malta, has urged the rest of the EU to look seriously at an alternative finance plan for Ukraine: joint EU borrowing secured against unallocated funds in the EU budget.
Unlike the reparations loan idea, common borrowing requires unanimity and Hungary has already indicated it would not agree.
Kallas said other funding options were “not really flying”. She recalled her experience as Estonian’s prime minister when she floated the idea of common borrowing for Ukraine: “It was two years ago when I proposed the Eurobonds, it didn’t fly because you need everybody on board.”
She was speaking ahead of a meeting on Monday of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, who are expected to sign off further tightening of sanctions against Russia. Kallas said 40 vessels and “enablers” would be added to the EU’s shadow fleet sanctions list, which aims to choke off trade in Russian oil traded above an international price cap, carried by ageing tankers with murky ownership structures.
Being listed means vessels cannot obtain insurance or access to ports in the EU. By 23 October the EU had listed 557 vessels, but officials admit the fleet is constantly being renewed.
Meanwhile, EU’s foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels.
Let’s cross to Jennifer Rankin, who is keeping an eye on their discussions.
‘Great deal of work under way,’ Zelenskyy says after morning talk with Finland’s Stubb
And in the last few minutes, Zelenskyy has published a short summary of his talks with Finland’s influential Alexander Stubb this morning.
He said the pair had a “good meeting” as “there is a great deal of work under way on the diplomatic track.”
“We also coordinated our joint positions ahead of today’s meetings with partners in Berlin and agreed on the next steps,” he said.
He also thanked Finland for its support and contribution to military purchases through Nato’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or Purl.
During this year Stubb emerged as one of the very few European leaders that seem to have access to – and the ear of – Trump and his team, playing a critical role in Europe’s efforts to influence the negotiations.
Ukraine still wants ‘Article 5-like’ security guarantees, Zelenskyy says
In his remarks to reporters after Sunday’s talks, Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine was prepared to drop its Nato aspirations, it would still require “Article 5-like” security guarantees from the US and European partners.
Article 5 is Nato’s collective defence clause which essentially says “that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”.
It remains to be seen if that’d be accepted by the US, and if so, how they would go about convincing Moscow to accept it as part of the settlement.
Ukraine not joining Nato fundamental issue for Russia, Kremlin says
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine not joining Nato was a fundamental question in talks on a possible peace settlement.
Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia expects an update from the US after its talks with European countries and Ukraine in Berlin.
Reuters noted that Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its Nato ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10% of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no Nato troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join Nato, as he held first talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday.
The move marks a big shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
Morning opening: Crunch time
Jakub Krupa
Key Ukraine-US talks are set to continue in Berlin today after five hours of negotiations on Sunday, with a group of European leaders later joining the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to show their solidarity with Kyiv.
Once the talks with the US are concluded, the mini-summit will bring together Britain’s Keir Starmer, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre, the Netherlands’s Dick Schoof, Poland’s Donald Tusk, Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson, as well as top EU and Nato officials.
Europe’s Trump whisperer and his occasional golf partner, Finland’s Stubb, told journalists on Sunday that “we’re probably closer to a peace agreement than we have been at any time during these four years.”
US envoy Steve Witkoff also said that “a lot of progress was made” during the Sunday talks.
But some key questions still remain and are believed to do with Ukrainian territorial concessions in the contested east, and crucial security guarantees to avoid a third aggression from Russia. Moscow has been publicly dismissive of any calls put forward by Ukraine’s European partners so far.
Today’s talks with the US and the mini-summit in Berlin – set to be attended by seven European leaders, and top figures in the EU and Nato – come just days before the key European Council summit in Brussels later this weekend, which will decide on the proposal of using frozen Russian funds to fund Ukraine through a reparations loan.
Over the weekend, new Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš has joined the growing group of countries critical of the proposal, led by Belgium and supported by Italy. “We will not take guarantees for anything nor put any money in,” he said on Saturday.
It looks like a decisive week for the EU and its ability to influence the end of the Ukraine war – first with Germany working together with Ukraine to put the European arguments to the US, and then by a show of European unity in support of Kyiv, and second with the much-anticipated decision on the reparations loan.
Whether they will succeed in making progress on either of the two things remains to be seen.
But US president Donald Trump, who only last week branded EU leaders as weak and indecisive, will be certainly looking at their actions to see if they want to challenge his thinking about them.
I will bring you all the key updates throughout the day.
It’s Monday, 15 December 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
