Ukraine and Europe must be consulted on any efforts to end Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, top European diplomats said Thursday, as reports circulated about a U.S.-Russian proposal to end the war at a time when corruption allegations have rattled Ukraine’s government.
The talk of a secret peace plan piled more pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also marshaling his country’s defenses against Russia’s bigger army, visiting European leaders to ensure they continue their support for Ukraine, and negotiating a major corruption scandal involving the embattled energy sector that has caused public outrage.
“For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the start of a meeting in Brussels of the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers.
Representatives of EU countries agreed. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that “all negotiations about a ceasefire, regarding the further peaceful development of Ukraine, can only be discussed and negotiated with Ukraine. And Europe will have to be included.”
It wasn’t clear whether the foreign ministers had seen the peace plan, reportedly drawn up by U.S. and Russian envoys, and which was said to include forcing Ukraine to cede territory, a prospect Zelenskyy has ruled out.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social platform X late Wednesday that American officials “are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas” for a lasting peace agreement which “will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that there “there are no consultations per se currently underway” with the U.S. on ending the war in Ukraine. “There are certainly contacts, but processes that could be called consultations are not underway,” he told reporters.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he didn’t know whether the proposal had the blessing of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“First and foremost, we have to find out whether it is really the big boys who (are) behind this plan or not,” he said. “I have listened to all the rumors (and) we have to really find out what is up and what is down.”
European leaders have already been alarmed this year by indications that Trump’s administration might be sidelining them and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in its push to stop the fighting.
EU diplomats have accused Putin of being insincere in saying he wants peace but refusing to compromise in negotiations while sustaining Russia’s grinding war of attrition in Ukraine.
Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, chided Putin’s forces for continuing to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, a day after a strike on the western city of Ternopil killed 26 people and injured 93 others. About two dozen people were still missing.
Kallas said that “if Russia really wanted peace, it could have … agreed to (an) unconditional ceasefire already some time ago.”
Trump has stopped sending military aid directly to Ukraine, with European countries taking up the slack by buying weaponry for Ukraine from the United States. That has given Europe leverage in talks on ending the conflict.
“We commend peace efforts, but Europe is the main supporter of Ukraine and it’s, of course, Europe’s security that’s at stake. So we expect to be consulted,” said Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.
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