Berlin (AFP) – European leaders in a conference call this week voiced distrust of US efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to German news weekly Der Spiegel, which said it had obtained written notes on the call. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed scepticism in the call Monday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and others that US negotiators would safeguard Kyiv’s interests, the report said. The magazine quoted Macron as saying during the call that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees”.
An Elysee source told AFP the reported quote did not match the French presidency’s own record of the call. “The president has publicly stated his position on the ongoing negotiations between Russia and the United States, which is no different in private,” the source added. According to the report, Merz warned Zelensky to be “very careful in the coming days” and added that “they are playing games with both you and us”.
The German chancellery told AFP: “We cannot comment on individual media reports. Furthermore, we cannot, as a matter of principle, report on confidential conversations.” Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, asked about the Der Spiegel report by AFP, said: “We do not comment on provocations.”
According to the magazine, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb expressed distrust of US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who went to the Kremlin for talks earlier this week. “We cannot leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” Stubb said, Der Spiegel reported. His office told AFP: “We do not comment on confidential discussions held by the President of the Republic.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte said in the call that “we must protect Volodymyr”, Der Spiegel said, citing what it said were notes on the call, not a verbatim transcript, without naming the author of the notes. A NATO official said: “As a general rule, we do not comment on leaks. As for the Secretary General’s stance on the ongoing work to end the war against Ukraine, he has been clear in his support for the efforts led by President Trump and his team.”
Washington last month put forward an initial 28-point proposal to halt the war in Ukraine, drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies and criticised as too close a reflection of Moscow’s maximalist demands on Ukrainian territory. A flurry of diplomacy followed, with US and Ukrainian negotiators holding talks in Geneva and Florida before Witkoff and Kushner headed to Moscow on Tuesday.
Der Spiegel said two unnamed participants in the call on Monday had confirmed that the notes accurately reflected the content of the conversation. They would not, however, confirm the quotes word for word as the leaders’ conversation was confidential.
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