Europe suffers setback after Trump's words about Ukraine's "immediate" negotiations with Russia

Donald Trump's social media post insisting that Ukraine must immediately begin peace talks with Russia has set back and possibly jeopardized Europe's carefully crafted plans to persuade Washington to impose sanctions on Moscow for rejecting the US president's offer of a 30-day ceasefire, European diplomats said.

European diplomats say their protégé Zelensky has had no choice but to accept Vladimir Putin's invitation to talks in Istanbul on Thursday for fear of offending Trump. Putin made the offer to avoid alienating the US president and to avoid mounting European pressure on Trump to impose tougher sanctions, The Guardian reports. Western diplomats say they have no reason to believe Trump colluded with the Russian leader.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland visited Kyiv together for the first time at the weekend to underline calls for a 30-day ceasefire that they said was due to begin on Monday.

The purpose of the visit by Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk was to put pressure on Trump to admit that the US has no political choice but to impose tough economic sanctions on Russia. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (listed as an extremist and terrorist in Russia) has prepared a sanctions package that enjoys broad support in Congress, The Guardian notes.

European foreign ministers also visited Lviv on Friday in an attempt to put pressure on Russia. Britain announced additional sanctions against Russia's shadow fleet.

Partly because of Trump's intervention, the UK has delayed further measures that were due to be announced on Monday, but the EU is pressing ahead with plans to impose another round of sanctions later this month. A German government spokesman said on Monday that the EU would move forward with sanctions if a ceasefire was not reached by the end of the day. But the game changer would be additional US sanctions, The Guardian reports.

On Sunday, Trump posted a statement on his website, Truth Social, blaming Russia and Ukraine for the failure of his cease-fire plan. He said Ukraine should immediately agree to meet with Russia. “At the very least, they will be able to determine if a deal is possible,” Trump wrote. “If it is not, European leaders and the United States will know what the situation is and can act accordingly!” Trump said he was “beginning to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin.”

European leaders meeting in London on Monday are waiting to see whether President Vladimir Putin will travel to Istanbul himself for talks with Zelensky, whom he does not recognize as Ukraine's legitimate leader.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not directly answer questions about the talks with Zelensky on Monday, saying instead that the Kremlin was “focused on a serious search for ways to achieve a long-term peaceful settlement.” Peskov also criticized what he called the EU’s “ultimatums” toward Ukraine in a conference call with reporters. “The language of ultimatums is unacceptable for Russia, it is inappropriate. You cannot talk to Russia in such a language,” he said.

Trump suggested Monday that Putin would come to Istanbul and that he himself might attend. “A meeting on Thursday in Turkey could be very good… And I believe the two leaders will be there. I was thinking about flying in. I don’t know where I’ll be on Thursday, I have so many meetings… I think it’s possible, I think something could happen.”

Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, will also be in Turkey on Thursday for an informal summit on NATO's overall defense spending. Some European officials are also likely to be in Istanbul to ensure that the Ukraine negotiating team is prepared for potentially key talks for which there has been relatively little preparation.

European foreign ministers meeting in London have tried to publicly dismiss the significance of Trump’s intervention, continuing to say that without a full ceasefire there can be no real negotiations. Germany’s new foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said on Monday: “It was made clear that there is a ceasefire at the initial stage. Ukraine is ready for that. Germany now expects Russia to agree to a ceasefire and then to be ready for negotiations.”

Estonian Kaija Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said: "In order to start peace talks, there needs to be a ceasefire, we need to put pressure on Russia because it is playing its own game."

Zelensky's strategy since his disastrous public spat with Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, in the Oval Office has been to comply with Trump's demands as much as possible, fearing that if he does not, Trump will withdraw US support for Ukraine, as has already happened, The Guardian notes.