Trump praises European leaders as ‘great people’ as they make final diplomatic push ahead of US-Putin summit – Europe live | World news
‘They are great people who want to see deal done,’ Trump says before talking to European leaders
US president Donald Trump appears to be ready for his big call with European partners.
In the last few minutes, he posted on Truth Social:
Will be speaking to European Leaders in a short while. They are great people who want to see a deal done.
Key events
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Merz, Zelenskyy briefing media after call with Trump
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Trump wants ceasefire in Ukraine during Putin meeting, Macron says
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Poland’s new president says represents Poland at Trump call
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‘No decisions about future of Ukraine without Ukraine,’ Starmer agrees with Dutch PM Schoof
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Trump criticises media for ‘very unfair’ coverage of his meeting with Putin
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Russia insists its ‘maximalist’ conditions for ending war remain unchanged
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‘They are great people who want to see deal done,’ Trump says before talking to European leaders
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Merz welcomes Zelenskyy in Berlin
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Germany’s Merz hosts Zelenskyy as weakened leader 100 days into his term — analysis
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Zelenskyy arrives in Berlin
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Estonia moves to expel Russian diplomat over ‘direct, active’ acts ‘undermining constitutional order’ and sanctions
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Putin to discuss ‘all accumulated issues’ with Trump, Moscow says, dismissing consultations with Europe as ‘insignificant’
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Hungarian foreign minister criticises Zelenskyy
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Ukraine confirms €500m loan to help with emergency gas purchases, energy resilience
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Trump alone in a room with Putin is a recipe for disaster – just look to their last meeting – analysis
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Stick together and work against Russian ‘deception,’ Zelenskyy says before call with Trump
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Timings for the day
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Zelenskyy expected in Berlin to join Merz in person for Trump call, bilateral talks
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Morning opening: Hello Donald, this is Europe speaking
Merz, Zelenskyy briefing media after call with Trump
Their press briefing in Berlin starts now.
You can watch the live streaming below, but I will bring you all the key lines here.
Briefing the media after the call, Macron told journalists that the leaders also backed the calls for more exchanges of prisoners or war and the release of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia during the war.
He also said that Trump reassured the European leaders that any territorial issues relating to Ukraine cannot be negotiated without Ukraine, adding “and that is the position that we support.”
Macron also said that the leaders were clear that there must be a clear link between any potential territorial concessions and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump wants ceasefire in Ukraine during Putin meeting, Macron says
We are just getting a news line coming in on Reuters quoting the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as saying that US president Donald Trump told European leaders that he “wanted to obtain a ceasefire in Ukraine during meeting with Putin.”
We will bring you more when we have it.
Either way, we should hear from German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy briefing the media after the call with Trump at some point in the next, say, half hour.
We will bring you their briefing live here.
For what it’s worth, Rafał Leśkiewicz, the spokesperson for the Polish president Karol Nawrocki, has just confirmed that only Nawrocki is on the call with Trump.
The implications here is that Tusk – despite being involved in the earlier consultation call with European leaders – is not taking part in the big call.
Definitely one to watch.
Poland’s new president says represents Poland at Trump call
Oh, that’s unusual: the office of the new Polish president, Karol Nawrocki, has just said that he is representing Poland at the call with Trump and other European leaders.
Until know, it was always Tusk who was involved in talks with the US and other European partners on Ukraine.
In fact, Tusk’s office earlier posted a picture of him joining the European pre-call with Zelenskyy, too.
Could it be that they divided up their participation in different calls? Or both dialled into the call with Trump?
To understand what might be going on here, you need a bit of domestic context on Polish politics, but in short: Nawrocki’s inauguration speech last week signalled a more assertive position of the new head of state in terms of shaping Poland’s foreign and defence policy.
But this is still unusual.
On the other side, a deputy defence minister in Tusk’s government appeared to directly half-mock half-challenge Nawrocki this morning, saying that he should leverage his good relationship with Trump (he received his backing during the electoral campaign) and help Ukraine.
The new president’s allies would probably say that he’s doing just that?
However, even if it turned out that both leaders joined the call, it wouldn’t be the first in Polish history: in Tusk’s first term as the prime minister, he clashed with the then-president Lech Kaczyński over who should take part in the EU leaders’ meetings, leading to the infamous “war for chairs” and both of them attending an EU summit in 2008.
One to watch as we get more clarity on what’s going on there.
But that Tusk press conference announced for later today could be politically explosive (14:24) – particualrly as the Polish president’s office has just called a rival press conference at 5pm…
‘No decisions about future of Ukraine without Ukraine,’ Starmer agrees with Dutch PM Schoof
In the last few minutes, Downing Street confirmed that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke with Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, earlier today.
The pair discussed “their sustained support for Ukraine,” and “agreed that there should be no decisions about the future of Ukraine without Ukraine.”
“The prime minister spoke to the prime minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof earlier today.
They discussed their sustained support for Ukraine and the ongoing work to end Russia’s barbaric war. They agreed that there should be no decisions about the future of Ukraine without Ukraine.
They looked forward to discussing further in this afternoon’s meetings alongside President Trump and President Zelenskyy.”
As for Trump – and his call with the group of European leaders should be starting now – we will probably hear from him a few times today, as my colleagues over on the US politics blog noted.
He is expected at a public event at 11am ET, in just under two hours from now, and obviously can always post something on his social media channels before.
I will keep an eye out for any updates.
The first of the three calls should be now well under way.
We are likely to hear from multiple leaders taking part in the consultations at some point later today.
The spokesperson for the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has just called a press conference for 6pm Warsaw time (5pm BST).
Trump criticises media for ‘very unfair’ coverage of his meeting with Putin
As he is trying to kill some time before the call later today, Trump took to social media again, criticising the media for “unfair” coverage of his upcoming meeting with Russia’s Putin.
Here it is in full:
Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin. Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, “Putin has already won.”
What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING. The Fake News is working overtime (No tax on overtime!).
If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!
But now they’ve been caught. Look at all of the real news that’s coming out about their CORRUPTION. They are sick and dishonest people, who probably hate our Country. But it doesn’t matter because we are winning on everything!!! MAGA
Russia insists its ‘maximalist’ conditions for ending war remain unchanged
Meanwhile, Russia said its stance on ending the war has not changed since Putin outlined his conditions last year, as he demanded the full withdrawal of Kyiv’s forces from key Ukrainian regions and the abandonment of its Nato ambitions, Reuters noted.
“Russia’s position remains unchanged, and it was voiced in this very hall just over a year ago, on 14 June 2024,” the Russian foreign ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Alexei Fadeev said, referring to a speech Putin delivered then at the foreign ministry.
The demands at the time were described as “maximalist” and widely seen as a non-starter with international partners – and repeatedly rejected by Ukraine.
‘They are great people who want to see deal done,’ Trump says before talking to European leaders
US president Donald Trump appears to be ready for his big call with European partners.
In the last few minutes, he posted on Truth Social:
Will be speaking to European Leaders in a short while. They are great people who want to see a deal done.
Merz welcomes Zelenskyy in Berlin
… and here they are, as Merz welcomes Zelenskyy in Berlin.
Germany’s Merz hosts Zelenskyy as weakened leader 100 days into his term — analysis
Deborah Cole
in Berlin
Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, hosts Zelenskyy as a weakened leader 100 days into his term.
A new poll shows the far-right Alternative für Deutschland overtaking Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc by two points, making it the strongest party with 26% support in a fractured electoral landscape. The CDU/CSU, which won February’s general election with nearly 29% of the vote, now claims only 24% of voter intentions.
The last time the AfD came out on top in the Forsa poll was in April, in a period of political limbo between election and Merz’s new government taking office in May.
The junior coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), have just 13% support, down three points from February, meaning that if the election were this weekend, the current governing alliance, which is already showing significant cracks, would fail to win a majority.
Merz, for decades a divisive figure in German politics, has struggled to reverse a deep pessimistic streak that has taken hold in Europe’s top economy.
GDP growth has failed to show a significant turnaround and is expected to flatline this year, while Merz’s campaign pledges for economic relief have not materialised.
A decision by the government in June not to deliver a reduction in electricity tax for households and small businesses angered many voters, while a divisive debate about the pension age has also taken a political toll.
More recently, an unusually bitter row over the planned appointment of a federal judge who fell victim to a right-wing-led media campaign against her liberal abortion stance caught Merz by surprise and eroded trust within the coalition.
On migration, which Merz has attempted to wrest as an issue from the AfD, his government has shown mixed results with a series of court setbacks and a simmering border dispute with Poland complicating his efforts to show decisive action.
Even before taking office, Merz spearheaded a major “bazooka” spending package for domestic defence, infrastructure and aid to Ukraine. But fiscal hawks within his own camp, who looked to Merz to safeguard German fiscal rectitude, were appalled by the measure they saw as a violation of his previous campaign promises.
Merz, who had no experience in government before becoming chancellor, has cut a more sure-footed figure on the world stage and won praise from many western allies for rallying European support for Ukraine as US president Donald Trump’s backing has wavered.
However the formulation of his stance on the war in Gaza has proved to be a high-wire act, alienating many of his closest allies and the Israeli government even while drawing praise from the SPD.
After weeks of ratcheting up his rhetoric criticising Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign in the Strip as the civilian toll rose, Merz last week made the shock announcement that Germany would no longer approve shipments of weapons that could be used in Gaza “until further notice”.
Prominent members of the CDU/CSU bloc accused Merz of failing to inform them in advance of a decision they said betrayed Germany’s responsibility for Israel’s security since the Holocaust. Voters meanwhile welcomed the move, with large majorities criticising Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Der Spiegel columnist Nikolaus Blome pointed out the irony in attacks on Merz’s go-it-alone approach, noting that many in the CDU/CSU had sought a firmer line after Angela Merkel’s 16 years of centrist politics and Olaf Scholz’s perceived waffling.
After just 100 days of this government’s terms you have to say: either Friedrich Merz will have to learn another style of leadership or his critics in the Bundestag will have to learn discipline. That was always a conservative value and still is, right?
