FRANKFURT, Germany: The leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany and France want talks with US President Donald Trump ahead of his conversation on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine conflict, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday.
Merz said he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the phone conversation scheduled between the two leaders, a Germany government statement said.
“We (the heads of state and government of France, the United Kingdom and Germany) have agreed to speak again with the American president to prepare for this discussion,” he added.
“The Europeans and Americans are determined to work together, in a targeted way, so that this terrible war ends quickly,” said Merz.
“We have made some small steps forward in recent days …, the parties to the conflict are talking to each other,” he added.
Trump on Saturday said that he would speak by phone with Putin to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, a day after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in more than three years did not yield a ceasefire.
Friday’s talks in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine, the first direct contact between the two sides in more than three years, failed to produce a ceasefire.
The three European leaders had already held talks with Donald Trump on Friday, along with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Zelensky met with US Vice President JD Vance for “about half an hour” on Sunday in Rome, after meeting the pope, a senior Ukrainian official said.
Zelensky and Vance discussed the upcoming telephone call between Trump and Putin, a senior Ukrainian official said.
They discussed “the situation on the front, preparations for the (Trump-Putin) conversation on Monday, the possibility of sanctions against Russia if there are no results, a ceasefire,” said the official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official added that it went “better” than the disastrous shouting match in the White House in February.
The Ukrainian President met Vance for the first time since a heated debate in the Oval Office three months ago, when the US VP accused him of being “disrespectful” towards Trump, who fuelled the row by telling Zelensky he should be more “thankful” and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia. – Agencies
