Germany’s top diplomat, Johann Wadephul, has said that the ongoing Geneva negotiations have put the EU’s position firmly in focus for US negotiators led by special envoy Steve Witkoff. He hailed the US’s peace proposal for Ukraine, saying the proposed peace plan for Ukraine is a “decisive success" for Europeans.
He said that the issue concerning Europe had been taken care of in the plan. But urged the US that both the EU and Ukraine must be fully involved in any final peace agreement. In an interview, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted that the sovereignty of Ukraine must not be sacrificed to please the Russian side.
Trump wants Zelenskyy to sign the agreement by Thursday, a development that has raised serious concerns among Ukraine’s backers in the EU. Estonian lawmaker Marko Mihkelson has said that Donald Trump's peace plan, designed to end the war in Ukraine, would not bring about lasting peace and fits Moscow's "strategic goals".
"They would like to destroy the sovereignty of Ukraine. And also to destroy European security," Mihkelson said. Trump’s peace proposal demands that Ukraine drop its aspirations of joining NATO, give up land, especially Donbas and Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and reduce the size of its military as part of the broader arrangement to secure the peace in the region.
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Meanwhile, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, on Monday once again laid out Kyiv's red lines. "No recognition of Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory, no limits on Ukraine's defence forces, no veto on Ukraine's right to choose future alliances.”
His remarks represent unequivocal opposition to Trump’s peace plan. Donald Trump has threatened that Kyiv could lose all US support, as well as several EU allies, if it does not agree to the 28-page peace proposal. The presidents of the European Council, António Costa, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have both noted progress in peace efforts for Ukraine following Sunday's talks in Geneva.
"There is a new momentum in the peace negotiations," Costa said after a meeting in Angola with leaders of all 27 EU member states to discuss Ukraine on the sidelines of an EU-African Union summit.
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