U.S. President Donald Trump began a flurry of diplomatic outreach to Western partners following his high-stakes talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, as capitals weigh up what might come next from Washington’s bid to end the war in Ukraine.
Early Saturday morning, European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà confirmed that the EU had taken part in a call “in which President Trump debriefed … European leaders” after the bilateral summit on Friday appeared to end without an agreement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a handful of other heads of state and government also took part in the telephone conversation, alongside Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, Poland’s Karol Nawrocki and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni were confirmed by Brussels to have joined. A second call was then held by the European leaders without Zelenskyy and the Americans to discuss the situation.
In a statement, Zelenskyy said that he had a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump, initially one-on-one, before other leaders were invited to take part. “We support President Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia. Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” he declared, while announcing he would travel to Washington on Monday to meet with Trump.
According to two EU diplomats, an extraordinary meeting of ambassadors representing all 27 member countries was convened on Saturday morning to discuss the bloc’s next steps. Envoys were asked to meet in “restricted format,” without aides or telephones to minimize the risks of information leaking.
Despite Trump offering a warm welcome to Putin — who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges — Friday’s talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough.
“We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump said, while claiming the talks were “extremely productive” and saw agreement on “many points.” He vowed to speak to the Ukrainian side, as well as European allies, because “it’s ultimately up to them.”
Putin, for his part, refused to answer questions from international media and continued to claim his all-out assault on Ukraine and efforts to capture territory are driven by “fundamental threats to our security.” Despite not making any public concessions, he hinted an “agreement” had been struck with Trump that could “help bring us closer to that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.”
European capitals had privately expressed concern about the prospect of a closed-door meeting between Trump and Putin in which Ukraine had not been invited to take part. However, leaders were publicly optimistic after a virtual summit with the American president last week saw him give assurances he wouldn’t impose territorial exchanges without Kyiv’s support.
The Trump administration had also engaged in unprecedentedly open discussions with international partners in the leadup to the Alaska talks, routinely briefing NATO and the EU in advance.
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