US President Donald Trump’s foreign envoy will travel to Germany this weekend to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders for the latest round of high-level talks on ending the war.
Steve Witkoff, who has been leading the White House’s attempts to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, will discuss the latest version of the proposed peace deal in Berlin.
The Trump administration is pushing for a deal before Christmas and has held several rounds of talks with representatives of Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks, although there have been few signs that a breakthrough is imminent.
It has not yet been confirmed which European leaders will attend the Berlin talks.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the meeting, said British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would participate.
The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting comes days after Ukraine presented its revised version of a 20-point peace plan to the United States, the latest version of a proposal that first surfaced in late November and has triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity.
The fate of territory in eastern Ukraine remains one of the most difficult issues to discuss in the negotiations, with kyiv refusing to give up land that has been illegally occupied and Moscow repeating its intention to take the entire Donbas region by force unless Ukraine withdraws.
Zelensky has reacted with skepticism to the White House’s latest proposal to resolve the territorial issue, which involves the Ukrainian military withdrawing from the region and turning it into a “special economic zone.”
The Ukrainian president told reporters that under the terms proposed by the United States, the Kremlin would commit not to advance into areas vacated by Ukrainian forces, and that the land between the Russian-controlled parts of the Donbas and Ukraine’s defensive lines would effectively become a demilitarized zone.
The proposal, apparently an attempt to resolve the question of legal ownership by creating a new status for land, has been publicly questioned by Zelensky, who said: “What will stop [Russia] to move forward? Or to infiltrate disguised as civilians?”
Ukraine and its allies in Europe have said publicly that the U.S.-led talks have been fruitful and have praised progress in securing amendments to a plan that was widely seen as favoring Russia when it first emerged.
But in recent weeks there have been signs that Trump is losing patience with Zelensky and his supporters on the continent.
In a scathing interview with Politico earlier this week, the US president called European leaders “weak” and renewed his calls for Ukraine to hold elections.
Zelensky said elections could be held within 90 days if the United States and Europe provided the necessary security. The elections have been suspended since martial law was declared when Russia launched its large-scale invasion in February 2022.
As the White House’s diplomatic push continues, attention in Europe is focused on how to support Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, with talks ongoing on security guarantees and financing.
The Ukrainian government faces a difficult financial situation: it needs to find an additional €135.7bn (£119bn; $159bn) over the next two years.
On Friday, European Union governments agreed to indefinitely freeze around €210 billion (£185 billion; $247) in Russian assets held in Europe.
The deal is expected to pave the way for funds to be loaned again to Ukraine if a deal can be reached at an EU summit next week, providing kyiv with financial aid for its military and efforts to rebuild parts of the country that were devastated after nearly four years of total war.
That move has been condemned as theft by the Kremlin, and Russia’s central bank has said it will sue Euroclear, a Belgian bank where the vast majority of Russian assets frozen after the invasion are located.
Officials were still negotiating the exact structure of a deal to repurpose Russian assets on behalf of Ukraine, and the Belgian government was particularly skeptical due to its particular legal exposure as the main holder.
It was reported elsewhere that the latest version of the peace plan being circulated envisages Ukraine quickly joining the European Union.
The Financial Times said Brussels backed Ukraine’s quick accession to the bloc, an idea proposed by Ukraine in the latest draft it submitted to Washington.
Ukraine formally applied to join the EU days after the 2022 invasion, but despite promises of an accelerated process it is still several years away from becoming a member.
Under the plan, Ukraine would become a member from January 2027, AFP reported, citing an unnamed senior official. It was unclear whether Washington had approved that element of the draft.
