Bloomberg: Europeans to seek Trump Buy-In at G7 for talks with Russia

Photo: Reuters

European leaders aim to use meetings with Donald Trump at a Group of Seven summit in France next week to get the US President on board with plans to push for new peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.

The leaders of the so-called E3 nations want Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire with the current front line as the “starting point for negotiations” and robust security guarantees for Ukraine that include deployment of a multinational force. They set out the proposals in a joint statement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following talks in London.

The ambassadors of France, Germany and the UK in Moscow visited the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday for talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, state-run Tass news service reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a day earlier that the envoys had requested a meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Putin has previously refused a ceasefire to allow for peace talks, arguing it would allow Kyiv to rearm and bolster its defenses, and has rejected the presence of European troops in Ukraine. He wants Ukraine to surrender territory in its eastern Donetsk region that Russian forces have failed to take in fighting since 2014 under any peace accord, something Kyiv has ruled out.

Critics of the idea of engaging with Russia now, including some officials from E3 nations, say that is all unlikely to change any time soon.

The E3 see an opportunity to carve out a bigger role for Europe in shaping negotiations, as US-led talks have stalled with Washington focused on the conflict with Iran. They want Trump’s buy-in to their proposals as a way to help increase pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table, leading to talks involving officials from Europe, the US, Ukraine and Russia as early as next month, the people familiar said.

As part of these efforts, the UK and the European Union are working on new sanctions to impose on Russia in the coming weeks, the people added. They cautioned that the plans were in flux and could change.

Putin last week criticized a mediation role for European leaders, saying they were clearly on Ukraine’s side in the war. He also flatly rejected an offer from Zelenskyy to meet for direct talks, dismissing an open letter from the Ukrainian leader as “rude” and intended to make it “impossible to hold any personal meetings.”

The Russian leader has stood firm on what he says were agreements reached with Trump at their meeting in Anchorage. European states should “convince the Kyiv authorities to agree to the compromises we are talking about,” he told a meeting with foreign media last week.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs