Trump was “very clear” in a virtual meeting Wednesday with European leaders that the U.S. wants to achieve a ceasefire at the upcoming U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
In the same meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, he told the group that Putin “is bluffing” ahead of the planned meeting with Trump.
Putin, Zelenskyy said, “is trying to apply pressure ... on all sectors of the Ukrainian front” in an attempt to show that Russia is “capable of occupying all of Ukraine.”
Putin is also bluffing about sanctions, “as if they do not matter to him and are ineffective. In reality, sanctions are very helpful and are hitting Russia’s war economy hard,” Zelenskyy said.
Speaking after the video conference between Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders, Macron said Trump was prioritizing a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. He added that Trump had been clear that “territorial issues relating to Ukraine ... will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president.”
Following his meeting Friday with the Russian leader, Trump will also “seek a future trilateral meeting” — one involving Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy, Macron said.
“I think that’s a very important point in this regard. And we hope that it can be held in Europe, in a neutral country that is acceptable to all parties,” Macron said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had convened the virtual meetings in an attempt to make sure European and Ukraine’s leaders are heard ahead of the summit, where Trump and Putin are expected to discuss a path toward ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
