European leaders are set to hold talks on steps toward ending the war in Ukraine, ahead of Ukrainian President Zelenskyys planned meeting with US President Donald Trump, as Moscow and Kyiv continue to exchange air strikes.
On August 17, a day before Zelenskyys crucial White House visit, the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany will hold a video call.
As Ukraine pushes for Europe to take part in negotiations over a settlement of the conflict and in the security guarantees Kyiv is seeking, a European leader may accompany Zelenskyy to Washington on Monday.
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According to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the Sunday call among European officials will determine whether Zelenskyy is joined on his visit.
Asked whether German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been outspoken in his support for Ukraines security interests, could travel with Zelenskyy, Wadephul said many leaders would be willing to go to Washington if that decision were made.
"It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,"Zelenskyy wrote in an Xpost on August 16, following the US-Russia talks in Alaska.
The Alaska summit, held on August 15, was the highest level diplomacy between Washington and Moscow since Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine. However, it appeared to bring no major shift in President Vladimir Putins war aims in Ukraine.
According to unnamed sources quoted by multiple news organizations, Putin told Trump he could agree to freezing the front lines in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions if Ukraine fully withdraws from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Russia claims to have annexed all four regions. It controls most of the Luhansk region and about 70 percent of the Donetsk region, and partially controls Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.
Ukraine Regions That Russia Says It Has Annexed (Updated daily)
In a social media post, Trump said after the Alaska meeting that it "was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement."
Ukraine and European allies, as well as the United States, have long called for a cease-fire to be implemented as a step towards a comprehensive peace deal.
According to an unnamed former Kremlin official quoted by theFinancial Times, Putin restated his demands relating to what he calls the "root causes" of the conflict. These include an end to Ukraine's NATO membership bid and a scaling-back of NATO's military presence on its eastern flank.
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Despite what may be the most significant diplomatic efforts since February 2022, Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange air strikes.
At least five people were killed and four others injured by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region,according to Vadym Filashkin, head of the local military administration.
"Over the past day, Russian forces fired 38 times at settlements in the Donetsk region," he said in a Telegram post on August 17.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a power line at a station in the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, regional governor Aleksander Gusev said. According to him, a railway employee was injured as a result of the attack.
