The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has welcomed a statement from European allies that insists the “path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine”, before a planned summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
In a joint statement issued on Saturday night, leaders from the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, along with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed Kyiv must be included in any peace talks with Russia.
The US and Russian presidents are preparing to meet in Alaska on Friday. A White House official said on Saturday night that Trump was open to the inclusion of Zelenskyy in the talks but added that for now the summit remained bilateral.
Russia said on Sunday that one person had been killed and several apartments and an industrial facility damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack on the southern Russian region of Saratov. On Saturday, two people died and 16 others were injured when a Russian drone hit a minibus in the suburbs of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, said the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. Two others died after a Russian drone struck their car in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to the regional governor.
In their statement, the European leaders welcomed Trump’s attempts to end the war but emphasised that negotiations could only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities. It added: “Only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed.”
On Sunday, Zelenskyy wrote on X: “The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations.
“Ukraine values and fully supports the statement by President Macron, Prime Minister Meloni, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Tusk, Prime Minister Starmer, President Ursula von der Leyen, and President Stubb on peace for Ukraine.”
In a Telegram post on Saturday, Zelenskyy had said that any decisions made without Kyiv were “dead decisions” and “[would] never work”.
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The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance, who is on holiday in the UK, held a meeting with Ukrainian and European partners on Saturday aimed at driving peace in Ukraine.
The meeting took place at Chevening, a country mansion in Kent traditionally used by the foreign secretary. Lammy later posted on X: “The UK’s support for Ukraine remains ironclad as we continue working towards a just and lasting peace.”
If the Trump-Putin summit goes ahead, it will be the first time a US president has met the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The last meeting Putin had with a US president was with Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021.
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Details of a potential deal have not been announced, but Trump said ending the war would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both”, meaning Ukraine could be required to renounce significant parts of its territory.
Zelenskyy on Saturday stressed that Ukrainians would “not give up their land to occupiers”.
A European official confirmed that a counterproposal was put forward by European representatives at the Chevening meeting but declined to provide details.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the counterproposal included demands that a ceasefire must take place before any other steps were taken and that any territory exchange must be reciprocal, with firm security guarantees.
It was not clear what, if anything, had been agreed at Chevening, but Zelenskyy called the meeting constructive.
“All our arguments were heard,” he said in his evening address to Ukrainians. “The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine. This is [a] key principle.”
