KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that support Kyiv's efforts to obtain fair terms for halting nearly four years of war following Russia's full-scale invasion.
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those expected to take part in the meeting of Ukraine's allies, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, via video link.
Zelenskyy indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has disparaged the Ukrainian leader, painted European leaders as weak, and set a strategy of improving Washington's relationship with Moscow.
In the face of Trump's demands for a swift settlement, European governments are trying to help steer the peace negotiations because they say their own security is at stake.
Trump said Wednesday he and European leaders discussed proposals by phone in "pretty strong terms," adding that Zelenskyy "has to be realistic" about Ukraine's position on a peace plan that would cede territory to Russia. He didn't elaborate.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that he, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to Trump that they finalize the peace proposals together with U.S. officials over the weekend. There may also be talks in Berlin early next week, with or without American officials, he said.
The main issue to be resolved is “what territories and concessions Ukraine is prepared to make,” Merz added.
The work remains difficult because Russian President Vladimir Putin "is relentlessly continuing his brutal war against the Ukrainian civilian population, and at the same time he is clearly playing for time in the negotiations,” Merz said.
There are signs that the negotiations are coming to a crossroads. The talks are at “a critical moment,” European leaders said Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will coordinate with European countries on a bilateral level, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday, and European Union countries are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
Top EU officials and diplomats met in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday and gave the country a long list of reforms needed to join the bloc, despite the ongoing war and objections from EU member Hungary. EU membership has become the central goal for Ukraine’s effort to anchor itself to the West as prospects for joining NATO stall.
Russia has new proposals on security
Trump's latest effort to broker a settlement is taking longer than he wanted. He initially set a deadline for Kyiv to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving. Previous Washington deadlines for reaching a peace deal also have passed without a breakthrough.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is engaging with his peace efforts, hoping to avoid further U.S. sanctions. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Russia has relayed to Washington "additional proposals … concerning collective security guarantees" that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
“We understand that when discussing security guarantees, we cannot limit ourselves to Ukraine alone,” Lavrov said. He didn’t elaborate on the Kremlin's proposals.
Putin has framed Europe as an obstacle to a peace settlement, and Lavrov again accused Europe of seeking to prolong the war. He charged that Western Europe “is only thinking about a ceasefire, catching its breath, and once again preparing Zelenskyy” for war.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday that so far this year Russia has launched over 46,000 drones and missiles against Ukraine.
He warned his European audience at a speech in Berlin: “We are Russia’s next target.”
He also described China as “Russia’s lifeline” for its war effort in Ukraine by providing most of the critical electronic components Moscow needs for its weapons. “China wants to prevent its ally from losing in Ukraine,” Rutte said.
Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil rig, disrupt Moscow flights
Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time, according to an official in the Security Service of Ukraine who was not authorized to talk publicly about the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The oil rig in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, belongs to Russia’s second-biggest oil company, Lukoil, the official told The Associated Press. The rig took four hits, halting the extraction of oil and gas from over 20 wells, he said.
Ukraine also launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the war overnight, halting flights in and out of all four Moscow airports for seven hours. Airports in eight other cities also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted 287 Ukrainian drones in multiple regions.
The display of Ukraine’s military capability to strike deep inside Russia appeared as a counter to the Kremlin’s argument that its invasion is overwhelming for its smaller neighbor.
Putin wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say. But since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured only about 20% of Ukraine.
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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.
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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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