“At the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders at the White House tomorrow,” said Von Der Leyen in a statement, before receiving the Ukrainian leader in Brussels for a virtual summit of the Coalition of the Will, the informal group of European countries which pushes to continuous support for kyiv.
Stefan Kornelius, spokesperson for the German government, said that the purpose of visiting the Monday Oval Office “is to exchange information with … Trump after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.”
“Chancellor Merz will discuss the status of peace efforts with heads of state and government and will focus on Germany’s interest in a rapid peace agreement in Ukraine,” said the spokesman.
The meeting was called by Trump after having talks in Alaska with Putin on Friday, where he said that the two parties had accepted “on many points”, but had stopped able to describe a peace plan. This was intended to be a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy was presented by the US administration as a precursor of potential three negotiations which includes Putin.
The diplomats told Politico on Saturday that they expected that European leaders accompany Zelenskyy in order to ensure that key red lines are not crossed and that Ukraine is not forced to see its desire to abandon the territory to conclude an agreement.
After Monday’s meeting in Washington, Trump said he would try to bring together Ukrainian and Russian leaders to work for a peace agreement. Putin has so far rejected the meeting with Zelenskyy and he has not given any indication on Friday that he had changed this position.
