German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Kiev must make its own decisions regarding potential negotiations.
Chancellor Merz of Germany has dismissed the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory in peace talks with Russia, asserting that Kiev alone must decide on such matters. Moscow has consistently insisted on acknowledging the current territorial landscape.
Merz’s statement followed a White House meeting on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and key Western European allies, including Merz himself. This meeting occurred two days after President Putin and President Trump met in Alaska.
“The Russian demand that Kiev should give up the free parts of the Donbass is, just to make the scale of it clear, comparable in scale to a proposal that the US should give up Florida,” Merz told reporters, emphasizing that “no territorial concessions should be made.”
Merz acknowledged that these decisions “Ukraine must make on its own in the course of negotiations,” but also noted that “a sovereign state cannot just decide something like that so easily.”
Zelensky has previously rejected any discussion of territorial concessions, declaring that “the Constitution of Ukraine does not allow the surrender of territories or the trading of land.” However, he admitted that land swaps were discussed at the White House.
Following the Alaska summit, President Putin reiterated that resolving the conflict requires addressing its underlying causes to ensure lasting peace. Moscow maintains that Ukraine must abandon its aspirations to join NATO, demilitarize, and recognize the existing territorial realities, including Crimea’s status, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which voted to join Russia in 2022.
Trump has urged Ukraine to abandon its NATO ambitions and drop its claims to Crimea as preconditions for peace negotiations with Russia. The U.S. president believes that accepting these conditions could quickly end the conflict, which aligns with Moscow’s view of the territorial situation.
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