Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that European partners maintain a “common position” on Ukraine’s security, after meet the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany in London -known together as “E3”- to respond to the peace plan promoted by the United States.
After Monday’s meeting at Downing Street, Zelensky appeared on the social network for his “personal contributions” throughout the journey to achieve peace.
“Today we had a detailed conversation about our joint diplomatic work with the American side, we aligned a common position on the importance security and reconstruction guarantees and we agreed on the next steps,” the Ukrainian president wrote in the publication.
“What is crucial today is unity between Europe and Ukraine, as well as unity between Europe, Ukraine and the United States,” he added. Likewise, Zelensky mentioned speaking with all three European presidents on “increased support” for defense in Ukraine.
In a later statement, a Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer, Macron, Merz and Zelensky agreed that while US-led peace talks continued, Europe should continue to support Ukraine. “Europe must support Ukrainethereby strengthening its defense capacity against the incessant attacks which have left thousands of people without heat or light,” the letter reads.
From London they also stressed that leaders spoke of “positive progress” negotiations over Russian sovereign assets linked to supporting Ukraine’s reconstruction and “instructed” their security advisers to continue negotiations in the coming days.
At the start of the meeting in London, Starmer stressed the need for a fair and lasting peace deal for Ukraine, while Macron stressed in the “letters” they have against Russia. Merz, for his part, expressed some skepticism about certain “details” of the American peace plan, without specifying them.
Generally speaking, leaders agree that the situation going through “a critical moment” and that “it is necessary to increase support for Ukraine and maintain pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin “to end this barbarity of war.”
This Sunday, US President Donald Trump said Zelensky’s negotiators “love” the latest plan, but said he was “a little disappointed” that the Ukrainian president “I haven’t read the proposal yet.” Separately, Zelensky noted that his negotiators would brief him and that “some issues can only be discussed in person.” At the end of this meeting, the Ukrainian president went to Brussels to meet the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen: “There is no more time to waste”
After London, the Ukrainian president traveled to Brussels, where he will meet NATO Secretary Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to continue discussing negotiations on possible peace in Ukraine. Precisely, the latter declared this Monday that “there is no time to waste” in obtaining financial support from Ukraine.
Von der Leyen indeed emphasized that “This is a crucial act for the defense of Europe.” “We all know what is at stake and we know that we no longer have time to waste. Obtaining financial support will help ensure Ukraine’s survival and is a crucial act for European defense,” he said in a statement.
The President of the Commission indicated that “In this new era, geoeconomics goes hand in hand with geopolitics” and assured that with its allies, “Europe has the means and the determination to increase pressure on Russia to sit at the negotiating table.”
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