European leaders expected to cement support for Ukraine amid US pressure to accept peace deal
BERLIN (AP) — European leaders are expected Monday to back Ukraine as it faces pressure from Washington to quickly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
Peace talks between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Ukrainian and European officials, continued Monday morning as part of a series of meetings aimed at securing the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia. Second day of talks in Berlin It started shortly before noon local time.
Finnish President Alexander StubbTrump, one of the key European interlocutors between US President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy, was spotted in downtown Berlin on Monday morning.
Zelenskyy met with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the German federal chancellery on Sunday in hopes of ending the nearly four-year war.
For months, Washington has tried to navigate both sides’ demands as Trump presses. A quick end to Russia’s war and increasingly exasperated by the delays. The search for possible compromise has faced major obstacles, including control Eastern Donetsk region of UkraineArea mostly occupied by Russian forces.
The US government said in a post on Witkoff’s account late Sunday that “a lot of progress was made” after the five-hour meeting.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said his country was ready to abandon its bid to join NATO if the United States and other Western countries gave Kiev security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. However, Ukraine continued to reject US pressure to cede its territory to Russia.
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control, which is among the basic conditions for peace.
The Russian president also cited Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason to launch a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine abandon its bid for alliance membership as part of any possible peace agreement.
Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurance from the West must be legally binding and supported by the US Congress.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the American side is expected to receive an update on the Berlin talks after the talks end.
When asked whether the negotiations would be finished by Christmas, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov called trying to predict a possible timeframe for a peace agreement a “thankless task.”
“I can only speak on behalf of the Russian side, on behalf of President Putin,” Peskov said. “He is open to peace, serious peace, serious decisions. He is absolutely not open to any tricks aimed at stalling time.”
Meanwhile, new president in London MI6 Spy agency to warn on Monday about Putin’s determination to export chaos to the world Rewriting the rules of conflict and creating new security challenges.
Blaise Metreweli He will make his first public speech as chief of the UK’s foreign intelligence agency, saying Britain faces increasingly unpredictable and interconnected threats, with “aggressive, expansionist” Russia highlighted.
Drone attacks continue
Russia fired 153 drones of various types into Ukraine from Sunday to Monday, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The air force said early Monday that 133 drones had been neutralized, while 17 more had hit their targets.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that its forces destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight. Then, between 7am and 8am local time on Monday, another 16 drones were destroyed.
The Russian defense ministry said 18 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over Moscow.
Officials said that flights were temporarily stopped at the city’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports as part of security measures.
Damage details and casualty figures were not yet available.
‘Pax Americana’ is over
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who along with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is leading European efforts to support Ukraine, said Saturday that “‘Pax Americana’ is largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
“Pax Americana” refers to the post-war dominance of the United States as a superpower that brought relative peace to the world.
Merz warned that Putin’s goal is “a fundamental change in the borders of Europe, the restoration of the former Soviet Union within its own borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, it will not stop,” Merz warned at the party conference in Munich.
Meanwhile, Macron promised on social platform X on Sunday that “France is and will remain with Ukraine to build a solid and lasting peace that can guarantee the security and sovereignty of Ukraine and Europe in the long term.”
Putin denied plans to attack European allies.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland. Pietro De Cristofaro in Berlin, Illia Novikov in Kiev, Ukraine, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed to this report.
