Trump Talks Ukraine Red Lines With Europe Before Putin Summit

U.S. and European officials will attempt to forget a common position ahead of the talks in Alaska.

BERLIN—President Trump is holding a virtual summit with select European leaders, including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss red lines for the coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, and France's Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu attend a video conference with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European Union leaders about the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting on Ukraine, at Fort de Bregancon in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, 13 August (REUTERS)

Shortly before the meeting was set to begin on Wednesday morning in Washington, the Russian government reiterated that its conditions for ending the war remain unchanged. Among them is a demand that Ukraine withdraw from territories that Russia hasn’t conquered. The statement appeared to roll back an earlier offer Putin made to Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who told European officials last week that Moscow might agree to freeze the front line in southern Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding territory in the east.

The videoconference was called to forge a common U.S.-European position ahead of what officials describe as the most significant negotiation between the West and Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Vice President JD Vance, Witkoff, and Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg will join Trump in talks with the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, Finland, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz convened the meeting amid concerns that Trump and Putin—a Soviet-trained former intelligence officer—could strike a deal that would be harmful to Ukrainian and European interests, according to senior German and EU officials.

While Trump’s decision last week to meet Putin on American soil worried Europeans, trans-Atlantic relations have since warmed. In a flurry of calls and meetings, senior U.S. officials—including Trump, Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—signaled their readiness to coordinate closely with Europe on securing a cease-fire and a “fair deal” to end the war, according to participants and briefed officials.

European diplomats were particularly impressed by Vance, who met with them in England on Saturday. He showed a strong interest in aligning trans-Atlantic positions ahead of the Putin talks and had a detailed understanding of the situation, participants said.

“They are great people who want to see a deal done,” Trump said of his European partners on Truth Social on Wednesday.

European leaders and Zelensky are expected to present Trump with three to five succinct red lines to carry into the Alaska summit. These include: a cease-fire as a prerequisite for further talks; any territorial discussions to start from the current front lines; and binding Western security guarantees that Russia must accept.

European officials initially sought direct representation at the Alaska meeting—which will also include Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov—proposing NATO chief Mark Rutte or another European leader, as well as Zelensky.

But after calls between Merz and Trump, Europeans dropped that demand, while publicly calling for Zelensky to be part of any talks with Putin. Trump told Merz on Sunday that Zelensky would be invited to a second meeting with Putin if the Alaska talks paved the way for direct negotiations. Trump expressed concern that Zelensky’s presence at the outset could derail the discussions, according to people familiar with the call.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters he saw his role as a facilitator for eventual talks between Putin and Zelensky, ideally following the Alaska summit.

On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexei Fadeev confirmed that Moscow’s position remains unchanged: Ukraine must cede the four regions it claims—Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.

“The territorial integrity of the Russian Federation is enshrined in our constitution, and that says it all,” Fadeev said when asked if Moscow would drop its claims.

Putin’s foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, one of his closest aides, told reporters that a second meeting, following Alaska, is expected to take place on Russian soil.

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com