ALBAWABA- The British Prime Minister, the French President, and the German Chancellor held a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday regarding Ukraine, according to Axios, just one day after European leaders met in London to project unity against growing U.S. pressure for a rapid settlement to Russia’s war.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that any agreement affecting Europe must be shaped by European consent rather than imposed from Washington.
Merz warned that the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) reinforces Europe’s need for greater strategic autonomy and criticized its claim that Europeans hold “unrealistic expectations” about the war, rejecting any peace plan that risks ceding Ukrainian territory without firm guarantees and insisting that Europe must define its own security to avoid a “sham peace.”
Starmer echoed this, declaring Europe “strong and united behind Ukraine” despite U.S. pressure and framing solidarity as essential to defending “freedom and democracy.”
The London meeting, described as a critical moment, ended with pledges to increase military aid and tighten economic sanctions on Russia while resisting any rushed settlement that undermines Ukrainian sovereignty.
Their stance follows Trump’s December 4 NSS, which prioritizes an expedited end to the conflict to stabilize global markets and restore “strategic stability” with Moscow, a markedly softer approach to Russia that calls on Europe to shoulder more defense burdens and criticizes “minority governments” for prolonging the war, a position welcomed in Moscow and viewed with alarm in European capitals.
Amid these tensions, Zelenskyy announced a revised 20-point peace proposal, drafted after consultations in London and stripped of what Kyiv called “anti-Ukrainian” provisions in a U.S.-authored 28-point framework, including territorial concessions in the Donbas and limits on Ukraine’s armed forces.
The updated plan demands no land cessions, NATO-style security guarantees from a European “Coalition of the Willing,” exchanges of prisoners and abducted children, reconstruction funded by frozen Russian assets, and expanded sanctions on Moscow.
Kyiv submitted the proposal to Washington, signaling readiness to compromise on secondary issues while refusing to negotiate away territory. Although the approach aligns with Washington’s broader push for pragmatic de-escalation, it faces the central obstacle of Russia’s refusal to discuss territorial withdrawal, leaving strengthened European resolve as Kyiv’s main source of leverage in an increasingly fraught diplomatic landscape.
