United States Vice President JD Vance and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arranged an urgent gathering of European, United States and Ukrainian officials on Saturday to discuss the prospects for a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
The hastily arranged gathering in the U.K. comes less than a week ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.
Vance and Lammy already planned to spend the weekend together at Lammy’s official country residence in Kent in southeast England, but they are now hosting national security advisers from Europe, Ukraine and the United States, the British prime minister’s office said on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier Saturday, Starmer said in the same statement.
According to a summary of that call, the two leaders agreed that the meeting taking place on Saturday in Kent would be a “vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “has been in contact with EU leaders in preparation of the meeting” and will “remain in regular contact with them also on the outcomes of the meeting,” Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said in an emailed statement.
Germany will attend the gathering on an “advisory level,” a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
Trump and Putin will meet next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the conflict, which Moscow started with its unprovoked all-out invasion in early 2022. Trump has said that Ukraine might need to give up land to reach a deal, a proposal that Zelenskyy quickly rejected.
Starmer said he and Zelenskyy welcome Trump’s “desire to bring this barbaric war to an end and agreed that we must keep up the pressure on Putin to end his illegal war.”
Commission spokesperson Hipper said the EU continues to support peace negotiations to end the war, “with Ukraine at the table and in which Ukraine can take independent sovereign decisions.”
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