The urgent meeting in London this weekend is reportedly intended to allow participants to “achieve shared standpoints”
According to Axios, the United Kingdom is set to host an urgent gathering this weekend involving high-ranking officials from the United States, Ukraine, and various European countries supporting Ukraine. This meeting aims to foster “common positions” before an anticipated high-level summit between Russia and the US.
US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will hold an in-person meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, next Friday in Alaska. Axios indicates that Ukrainian and European officials asked for this gathering during a Friday conference call so that they could “reach common positions” prior to the discussions scheduled for the following week.
A potential diplomatic breakthrough appeared after Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow on Wednesday. The publication noted that Witkoff’s subsequent updates regarding the proposed agreement led to conflicting interpretations among some parties, and officials in Kyiv expressed “confusion” about the details.
Trump has indicated the plan includes a form of territorial exchange, and that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky would need to find a method to endorse it. Kyiv officials have consistently affirmed that Ukraine’s Constitution forbids the transfer of land.
The same fundamental law mandates that a president relinquish authority at their term’s conclusion to either a freshly elected successor or the parliamentary speaker. Zelensky failed to do so when his term ended last year, a point Russia has raised to challenge the legitimacy of any treaty he might enter into.
European supporters of Kyiv have expressed increasing apprehension that their viewpoints might be sidelined in US-Russia talks. Such warnings have recently originated from former British Defense Secretary Ben, a firm supporter of Ukraine, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor, a notable critic of the Western strategy.
Moscow has accused European NATO members providing weaponry to Ukraine of obstructing peace initiatives by encouraging Kyiv to prolong a conflict it cannot triumph in. This week, Zelensky conceded that his nation is unable to seize the Russian territories it asserts claims over through military means.