KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that are supporting Kyiv’s effort to obtain fair terms for an end to the war with Russia.
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those expected to take part in the meeting of Ukraine's allies, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, via video link.
Zelenskyy indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by U.S. President Donald Trump's demands for a swift settlement. European governments are trying to help steer the peace negotiations because they say their own security is at stake.
Trump said Wednesday that he and European leaders discussed proposals by phone in “pretty strong terms,” adding that Zelenskyy “has to be realistic” about his country’s position on a peace plan that would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia. He didn't elaborate.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that he, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to Trump that they finalize the peace proposals together with U.S. officials over the weekend. There may also be talks in Berlin early next week, with or without American officials, he said.
The main issue to be resolved is “what territories and concessions Ukraine is prepared to make,” Merz added.
“The work we are doing together remains extremely difficult. There is a very simple reason for this. President Putin is relentlessly continuing his brutal war against the Ukrainian civilian population, and at the same time he is clearly playing for time in the negotiations,” Merz said.
There are signs that the negotiations are coming to a crossroads. The talks are at “a critical moment,” European leaders said in a statement Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will coordinate with European countries on a bilateral level, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday, and European Union countries are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
Russia has new proposals on security
Trump’s latest effort to broker a settlement is taking longer than he wanted. He initially set a hard deadline for Kyiv to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving. Previous Washington deadlines for reaching a peace deal have also passed without making a breakthrough.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is engaging with his peace efforts, hoping to avoid any further U.S. sanctions. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Russia has relayed to Washington “additional proposals … concerning collective security guarantees” that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
“We understand that when discussing security guarantees, we cannot limit ourselves to Ukraine alone,” Lavrov said. He didn’t offer details of the Kremlin's proposals.
Putin has framed Europe as an obstacle to a peace settlement, and Lavrov again accused Europe of seeking to prolong the war.
He charged that Western Europe “is only thinking about a ceasefire, catching its breath, and once again preparing Zelenskyy” for war.
Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil rig, disrupt Moscow flights
Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time, according to an official in the Security Service of Ukraine who was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The oil rig is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, and belongs to Russia’s second biggest oil company, Lukoil, the official told The Associated Press. The rig took four hits, halting the extraction of oil and gas from over 20 wells, he said.
Also, Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the nearly four-year war overnight, forcing flights in and out of all four Moscow airports to be halted for seven hours. Airports in eight other cities across Russia also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted 287 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions.
The display of Ukraine’s military capability to strike deep inside Russia appeared as a counter to the Kremlin’s argument that its invasion is overwhelming for its smaller neighbor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say. But since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured only around 20% of Ukraine.
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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine