EU Leaders Insist Ukraine Must Decide Its Own Future Ahead of Trump-Putin Talks

 

European Union leaders, with the exception of Hungary, have issued a joint statement declaring that Ukraine must have the freedom to determine its own future. The declaration comes ahead of a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will speak with Trump beforehand, amid concerns that Washington, Ukraine’s main arms supplier, could push for a peace deal on terms unfavourable to Kyiv.

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The EU statement stressed that meaningful negotiations require a ceasefire or reduced hostilities and must safeguard both Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests. It also pledged that EU nations are ready to contribute to any future security guarantees for Ukraine. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Putin, dismissed the statement and suggested the EU should instead pursue its own summit with Russia.

Fears remain that Trump may prioritise U.S. interests over European security, particularly given his past comments suggesting that a territorial swap could form part of a peace deal. This possibility has caused alarm in Kyiv and across European capitals, as the territories in question are internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

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Kyiv’s concerns about the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting are heightened by recent battlefield developments. Ukraine’s military reported on Monday that it had recaptured two villages in the eastern Sumy region, marking the first notable territorial gains in more than a year. These advances come against the backdrop of a renewed Russian offensive in the area, launched after President Vladimir Putin demanded a “buffer zone” there.

Despite the local success in Sumy, Russian forces continue to make slow but steady progress elsewhere, capturing villages almost daily in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s Deep State mapping project estimates that Russia currently controls around 200 square kilometres of Sumy and a total of approximately 114,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which was seized in 2014.

Trump has recently toughened his public stance on Moscow, agreeing to send more U.S. weapons to Ukraine and threatening sanctions on buyers of Russian oil, though his earlier ultimatum has since lapsed. Still, the optics of hosting Putin for the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021 have raised fears in Kyiv and Europe that the U.S. president may seek a quick deal that could compromise Ukraine’s sovereignty in exchange for diplomatic gains or domestic political victories.