After a videoconference meeting with European leaders who attended the Monday gathering on Ukraine, spearheaded by the US President, Paulo Rangel engaged in a telephone conversation with Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed the Ministry on social media platform X.
Rangel reiterated “support for Ukraine, its EU membership, and full solidarity in the forthcoming negotiation framework,” it was stated.
The meeting in Washington on Monday was called by Donald Trump, following a summit in Alaska on Friday with the Russian counterpart, which concluded without any announcement related to the conflict resolution.
Attendees at the White House included French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb were also present.
In a message on Truth Social, Trump stated that after the gathering at the White House, he called Russian President Vladimir Putin and started “preparations for a meeting, location to be determined,” between the Russian and Ukrainian heads of state.
“Following that meeting, we’ll have a trilateral summit with both Presidents and myself,” he added.
The President of the European Council, António Costa, argued that, in addition to bilateral and trilateral talks between leaders about the war in Ukraine, quadrilateral discussions involving the EU should take place.
António Costa expressed to journalists, after a videoconference with European leaders, the EU’s desire to be at the negotiation table, despite potential future dialogues not including Brussels.
Russia has so far rejected any extended ceasefire and demands, to end the conflict, control over four regions—Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporijia—besides the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014, and for Ukraine to permanently renounce joining NATO.
These conditions are deemed unacceptable by Ukraine.
In the coming days, a series of meetings at various levels and formats are expected to discuss potential security guarantees.
The chiefs of staff of the armed forces of NATO member countries will meet on Wednesday via videoconference to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and “the progress of diplomatic efforts,” the Atlantic Alliance announced today.
“Tomorrow [Wednesday], by videoconference, I will organize a meeting of the chiefs of staff of the 32 allied nations,” stated Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who presides over NATO’s Military Committee, on platform X.
Today, the “coalition of volunteers”—comprising around 30 countries, mostly European—convened to discuss the same issues.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, claiming to protect pro-Russian separatist minorities in the east and “denazify” the neighboring country, which has been independent since 1991, following the Soviet Union’s collapse, and is increasingly moving away from Moscow’s influence and closer to Europe and the West.
The war in Ukraine has already claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides, with recent months marked by large-scale Russian aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, while Kyiv’s forces have targeted, with drone offensives, military targets in Russian territory and the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.
