EU leaders appeal to Trump to defend Europe's security interests at his
war summit with Putin
[August 12, 2025]
By LORNE COOK
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders appealed on Tuesday to U.S.
President Donald Trump to defend their security interests at a key
summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later this week over
the war in Ukraine.
The Europeans are desperate to exert some influence over a Friday
meeting that they have been sidelined from. It remains unclear whether
even Ukraine will take part. Trump has said that he wants to see whether
Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year.
But Trump has disappointed U.S. allies in Europe by saying that Ukraine
will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He also said that
Russia must accept land swaps, although it remains unclear what Putin
might be expected to surrender.
The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Putin, who has waged the biggest
land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia’s energy might to try to
cow the EU, might secure favorable concessions and set the outlines of a
peace deal without them.
The overarching fear for European countries is that Putin will set his
sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.
In a statement early on Tuesday, the leaders said that they “welcome the
efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia’s war of aggression
against Ukraine.” But, they underlined, “the path to peace in Ukraine
cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
“A just and lasting peace that brings stability and security must
respect international law, including the principles of independence,
sovereignty, territorial integrity and that international borders must
not be changed by force,” they said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the idea that
Ukraine must commit to give up land to secure a ceasefire. Russia holds
shaky control over four of the country's regions, two in the country’s
east and two in the south.
In Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military training
facility left one soldier dead and 11 others wounded, the Ukrainian
Ground Forces posted on Telegram. Soldiers rushing to shelters were hit
with cluster munitions, according to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
Meanwhile, Russia appeared to be on the verge of taking an important
city in the Donetsk region, as its forces were reported to be rapidly
infiltrating positions north of Pokrovsk.
Military analysts using open source information to monitor the battles
say the next 24-48 hours could be critical. Losing Pokrovsk would hand
Russia an important battlefield victory ahead of the summit. It would
also complicate Ukrainian supply lines to the Donetsk region, where the
Kremlin has focused the bulk of its military efforts.
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U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir
Putin at the G-20 Summit on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“A lot will depend on availability, quantity and quality of
Ukrainian reserves,” Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the
Finland-based Black Bird Group, wrote in a post on X late Monday.
On Monday, Trump repeated that “there’ll be some land swapping going
on.” He said that this would involve “some bad stuff for both”
Ukraine and Russia. His public rehabilitation of Putin — a pariah in
most of Europe — has unnerved Ukraine’s backers.
Trump was also critical of Zelenskyy, noting that Ukraine’s leader
had been in power for the duration of the war and said “nothing
happened” during that time. He contrasted that with Putin, who has
wielded power unchallenged in Russia for decades.
It’s unclear whether the Europeans were unsettled by Trump’s
assertion that he would be traveling to Russia on Friday to meet
Putin. The summit is taking place in the U.S. state of Alaska, which
was colonized by Russia in the 18th century until Czar Alexander II
sold it to the U.S. in a land deal in 1867.
The Europeans will make a fresh attempt to rally Trump to Ukraine’s
cause on Wednesday at virtual meetings convened by German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz. Trump did not confirm whether he would take part,
but he did say: “I’m going to get everybody’s ideas” before meeting
with Putin.
Tuesday’s statement was also meant to be a demonstration of European
unity. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is Putin’s
closest ally in Europe and has tried to block EU support for
Ukraine, did not endorse it. He was the only one of the bloc's 27
leaders who refused to do so.
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Associated Press writers Samya Kullab and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv
contributed.
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