By Kirsti Knolle, Olena Harmash and Tom Balmforth
BERLIN/KYIV (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has said Ukraine must be involved in talks about territory in any ceasefire deal with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
The comments were the first indication of what came out of talks between Trump, European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, intended to shape Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Trump’s insistence on involving Ukraine, if confirmed, could bring a measure of relief to Ukraine and its allies, who have feared that Trump and Putin could reach a deal that sells out Europe’s and Ukraine’s security interests and proposes to carve up Ukraine’s territory.
Trump and Putin are due to meet in Alaska on Friday for talks on how to end the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War Two. Trump has said both sides will have to swap land to end fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions.
On a day of intense diplomacy, Zelenskiy flew into Berlin for German-hosted virtual meetings with European leaders and then with Trump. The Europeans worry that a land swap could leave Russia with almost a fifth of Ukraine and embolden Putin to expand further west into the future.
(Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tom Balmforth and Matthias Williams; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Jon Boyle and Kevin Liffey)
