By Guy Birchall
Contributing Writer
European Union leaders met Monday for discussions on Ukraine amid the United States’ proposal for peace in the country, which emerged last week.
The gathering was to take place on the sidelines of an EU-African Union summit in Luanda, Angola, with leaders not physically attending the summit joining via video link.
European Council President António Costa said in a Monday post on X that he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the meeting “to get his assessment of the situation.”
“A united and coordinated EU position is key in ensuring a good outcome of peace negotiations — for Ukraine and for Europe,” he said.
Zelenskyy, speaking via video link from a separate summit of Ukraine’s allies in Sweden, said that Ukraine would “continue working with partners, especially the United States, to look for compromises that will strengthen but not weaken us.”
He added that Moscow must pay for the war, and that a decision on using frozen Russian assets was crucial.
“Right now, we are at a critical moment, and we are working with the United States, European partners, and many others to define steps that can end Russia’s war against us, against Ukraine, and bring real security,” he said.
It follows a busy weekend of transatlantic back and forth between Ukraine, Europe, and the United States after President Donald Trump’s plan to bring an end to the fighting between Moscow and Kyiv came to light on Thursday.
On Sunday, Washington and Kyiv said they had “updated and refined” the peace framework to end the war during talks in Geneva, Switzerland, following criticism that the previous proposal was too friendly to the Kremlin.
According to a joint statement issued by the White House, the new version of the agreement would provide stronger security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future attacks by Russia.
“Both sides … reaffirmed that any future agreement must fully uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty and deliver a sustainable and just peace,” the joint statement reads.
According to the White House, the Ukrainians said the deal “reflects their national interests.”
The two nations said the meeting was “highly productive,” a sentiment echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“It is my personal view that we’ve had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process since we’ve been involved,” Rubio, who is leading the U.S. negotiations, told reporters on Sunday.
On Monday, several European nations also welcomed the progress made at the talks.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said talks between the United States and Ukraine in Geneva had produced a “decisive success” for Europeans.
“All issues concerning Europe, including those concerning NATO, have been removed from this plan — this is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday,” Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio.
“It was clear from the outset, as we have repeatedly said, that any agreement must not be reached over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb also welcomed progress made in Switzerland, but said major issues remained.
“I welcome the progress made at yesterday’s meetings between U.S. and Ukraine in Geneva,” he wrote on X. “The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved. Any decision falling in the remit of EU or NATO will be discussed and decided by EU and NATO members in a separate track.”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto expressed support for Trump’s plan.
“The 28-point peace plan is a major chance to end the war in Ukraine. Still, some Western European leaders are trying to block it,” he wrote on X. “Our position is clear: every European politician has a duty to support this plan fully and unconditionally, as this is the rational and humane choice.”
Russia said it had received no official information on the outcome of the talks in Geneva.
“No, we have not yet received any information. We are, of course, closely monitoring the media reports that have been pouring in from Geneva over the past few days, but we have not yet received anything officially.” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency TASS.
“We haven’t seen any plan yet; we have read statements following the discussions that took place in Geneva. Some adjustments were made to the text we previously saw.”
He said that there were no plans to discuss the initiative with the United States this week.
Jacob Burg, Joseph Lord and Reuters contributed to this report.
