With the exception of Hungary, all EU leaders have signed a joint statement, with Kaja Kallas, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, calling for the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to attend the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday, August 15, 2025.
This came in advance of their virtual summit with Donald Trump – convened to discuss US strategy before the Prsident’s talks with Russian President, Vladimir Putin on Friday.
Trump insists that his meeting with Putin is a “feel-out” to gauge the Russian leader’s willingness to compromise, but European leaders fear Trump will be lured into a joint declaration with Moscow that involves irretrievable concessions before substantive talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Putin may also use the meeting to advance a wider agenda of normalisation of relations between the US and Russia, a development that would start to lock Trump into economic cooperation with Moscow rather than confrontation.
The EU leaders said that meaningful negotiations can only take place in the “context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities.”
“We share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.
“A Ukraine capable of defending itself effectively is an integral part of any future security guarantees.”
European leaders
They added that EU nations were ready to contribute further to security guarantees. Kallas noted that the sequencing of the steps is important. “First, an unconditional ceasefire with a strong monitoring system and ironclad security guarantees,” she added.
European leaders are clinging to the hope that Trump’s recent impatience with Putin for failing to agree a 30-day ceasefire will not dissolve on contact with the Russian leader.
Recent signs suggested Trump was slowly hardening his stance towards Russia, including resuming intelligence cooperation with Ukraine, a willingness to supply arms for Ukraine if bought by the EU and the threat of secondary sanctions against countries that traded in Russian oil.
However, Europe’s painstaking diplomatic progress with Trump, including a successful NATO summit in June, now looks to be at risk.
Trump has said any peace deal would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Russia and Ukraine, a phrasing that hides the reality that virtually all the territory in question is Ukrainian-held. Russia has yet to specify if it will hand back any of the territory it has seized by force since it launched its first military attacks more than 11 years ago.
Moreover, the European leaders were careful not to express criticism of Trump in their statement, saying that they welcomed “the efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
“A just and lasting peace that brings stability and security must respect international law, including the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and that international borders must not be changed by force.”
European leaders
Trump played down the possibility of a breakthrough in Alaska but said that he anticipated “constructive conversations” with Putin, a piece of expectation management that is unlikely to reassure European leaders.
Trump has made it clear that he sees no prospect of Ukraine regaining territory it has lost, and is frustrated that European leaders, worried about Ukrainian morale, remain so reluctant to acknowledge this reality in public. Zelenskyy refers to a de facto loss of territory, but will refuse to accept the loss in any peace treaty.
Orban Mocks EU Statement
However, Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, Putin’s longstanding ally in Europe, mocked the statement from his EU counterparts.
He asserted that the statement attempts to set conditions for a meeting to which leaders of the EU were not invited.
“The fact that the EU was left on the sidelines is sad enough as it is. The only thing that could make things worse is if we started providing instructions from the bench.”
Viktor Orban
Denying that he was Putin’s puppet, he added that the “only sensible action” for EU leaders is to initiate an “EU-Russia summit, based on the example of the US-Russia meeting.”
READ ALSO: Taylor Swift Announces New Album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
