Ukraine updates: Merz invites Trump, Zelenskyy to meeting

The prime ministers of the UK and Canada have called for Ukraine to be a part of any peace process negotiated between the US and Russia.

The comments came after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a phone call with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney.

"Both leaders underscored that Ukraine's future must be one of freedom, sovereignty and self-determination," Starmer's office said in a statement afterwards.

"They welcomed continued international efforts, led by President Trump, to bring peace and agreed that this must be built with Ukraine, not imposed upon it."

The US and Russia are set to discuss the war in Ukraine when the leaders of both countries meet in Alaska on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said he discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war in a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"We coordinated positions ahead of important diplomatic steps planned for this week," Yermak said on social media.

"For Ukraine, the priority is a just and lasting peace, which requires an unconditional ceasefire as a prerequisite for substantive negotiations, as well as increased pressure on Russia to take real steps in this direction."

US President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Katja Kallas said on Monday that "transatlantic unity, support [for] Ukraine and pressure on Russia" were key to ending Moscow's ongoing war in Ukraine and preventing "future Russian aggression in Europe."

Speaking after a virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers and ahead of US President Donald Trump's planned meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Friday, Kallas said member states had expressed support for any steps made by the United States that will lead to a "just peace."

In the meantime, she said the bloc was preparing "more sanctions against Russia, more military support for Ukraine and more support for Ukraine's budgetary needs."

She also said the EU was continuing to support Kyiv's accession process.

US President Donald Trump has said he is expecting to have a "constructive conversation" with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday which he hopes will lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

"I'm going to speak to Vladimir Putin and I'm going to be telling him: 'you've got to end this war,'" Trump said at a White House press conference on Monday, adding he'd "like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly."

However, he also expressed displeasure at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's unwillingness to accept to territorial concessions, saying he was "a little bothered" by Zelenskyy's statement that surrendering territory would require constitutional approval.

"I mean, he's got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap?" Trump said, erroneously inferring that Zelenskyy and Ukraine are in some way responsible for starting the current war.

As a reminder: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, not the other way round.

"There'll be some land swapping going on," insisted Trump, adding that he would call Zelenskyy and other European leaders right after the meeting with Putin

"The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin, or Zelenskyy, Putin and me," he said. "I'll be there if they need."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday invited US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and several European leaders to a virtual meeting, to take place on Wednesday ahead of the Trump-Putin summit later this week.

The German chancellery said in a statement that the talks would concentrate on "the current situation in Ukraine with a view to the planned meeting between US President Trump and Russian President Putin."

The chancellery also said the talks would focus on "further options for action to put pressure on Russia" as well as "preparations for possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security."

The foreign ministers' virtual huddle on Monday is more of a debrief after smaller talks with the US near London than deliberations on concrete EU action. There's little new in Europe's position — but in a way, that's the point. 

The EU's big players have spent the last few months trying to demonstrate their commitment to Ukraine by maintaining military, financial and political backing in the face of shifting US policies and a drawdown in support from across the Atlantic.

Aware there will likely be no seat for Europe at Friday's Trump-Putin talks, the EU now seems keen to remind both sides that it, too, is key to any potential peace accord.

Frozen Russian central bank assets, extensive EU sanctions on Moscow, ongoing support to Kyiv and a possible role as future security guarantors — these are some of Europe's areas of leverage. 

The bloc also wants to send a message to Moscow that trying to cut a deal directly with Washington won't cut Europe out of the picture. EU capitals will be watching Friday's talks "extremely attentively" — one diplomat told DW — conscious of how quickly things could move.

US Vice President JD Vance said an eventual negotiated settlement would probably leave both Russia and Ukraine unhappy in one way or another. With the gap in positions so wide, it's likely Europe would find itself in the same boat. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a "long conversation" with Narendra Modi on Monday, where the Ukrainian president "informed" the Indian prime minister "about the Russian attacks on our cities and villages."

"And this is at a time when there is finally a diplomatic possibility to end the war," Zelenskyy wrote on X. 

"Instead of demonstrating readiness for a ceasefire, Russia is showing only its desire to continue the occupation and killings. It is important that India is supporting our peace efforts and shares the position that everything concerning Ukraine must be decided with Ukraine's participation."

Zelenskyy's remarks come amid concerns over the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Zelenskyy and Modi also "discussed in detail the sanctions against Russia."

India has been heavily criticized in the West for increasing imports of Russian fossil fuels in the face of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. India's oil purchases from Russia grew nearly 19-fold from 2021 to 2024, from 0.1 to 1.9 million barrels a day.

And Zelenskyy "noted that it is necessary to limit the export of Russian energy, particularly oil, to reduce its potential and ability to finance the continuation of this war. It is important that every leader who has tangible leverage over Russia sends the corresponding signals to Moscow."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday warned against capitulating to the demands of Vladimir Putin ahead of talks between the Russian president and Donald Trump.

The US-Russia summit is set to take place in Alaska on Friday and will be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021.

Kyiv is concerned that Trump and Putin could strike a deal requiring Ukraine to cede territory.

"Russia is dragging out the war, and therefore it deserves stronger global pressure," Zelenskyy wrote in a statement. "Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position, it is a rational one."

"Concessions do not persuade a killer," he added.

Russia has become increasingly reliant on drones in its attacks on Ukrainian cities. Mass production of the Iranian-designed weapons began a year ago in Tatarstan, in central Russia. Independent Russian reporters say that children are involved in drone production and development.

EU foreign ministers on Monday are to discuss a Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meeting in Alaska later this week.

The ministers are set to meet via video link, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also planning to join.

Trump and Putin will meet on Friday, but the EU has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any arrangement to end the war that began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Over the weekend, European leaders pushed for Ukraine's involvement in the talks, amid fears that a meeting without Kyiv could see if forced to cede swaths of territory.

"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday he hoped and assumed that Zelenskyy would attend the Alaska summit.

Leaders of the Nordic and Baltic countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden — also said no decisions should be taken without Ukrainian involvement.

Talks on ending the war could only take place during a ceasefire, they added in a joint statement.

"The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine's and the whole of Europe's security," the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said.

Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance said Washington is working on arranging a meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy.

"We're at a point now where we're trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict," Vance said during an interview on Fox News.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said that seven Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russia's air defense systems overnight on Sunday and into Monday morning.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry and a regional official said three people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the regions of Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.

Welcome to DW's coverage of the latest developments in the Russian war on Ukraine.

European Union foreign ministers are set to hold talks via video link ahead of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

The Europeans want to push for Ukraine's involvement in any peace talks with Russia.

Monday's meeting comes amid an apparent stance change by Trump toward Ukraine and Russia, with him threatening harsher sanctions against Russia if it doesn't agree to a ceasefire.