Kyiv secures backing from EU and NATO

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won diplomatic backing from Europe and the NATO alliance on Sunday ahead of a Russia-US summit this week, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are due to discuss a possible ceasefire for a conflict now in its fourth year.

Trump, who for weeks had been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to halt the fighting, announced instead that he would meet Putin in Alaska.

A White House official has said Trump is open to Zelensky attending but preparations are underway for only a bilateral meeting.

The Kremlin leader last week ruled out meeting Zelensky, saying conditions for such an encounter were "unfortunately still far" from being met.

US Vice-President JD Vance said on Sunday that Washington was working to "schedule" a meeting between Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

"One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change," Vance said during an interview on Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures.

"We're at a point now where we're trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict," Vance said when asked about his expectations for the summit.

The vice-president said the United States was going to "try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with".

Vance added: "It's not going to make anybody super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it."

Over the weekend, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the European Commission said any diplomatic solution must protect the security interests of Ukraine and Europe.

"Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine's and the whole of Europe's security," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday.

EU foreign ministers were due to meet on Monday to discuss next steps, she said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told US network ABC News that Friday's summit "will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute need to acknowledge that Ukraine decides on its own future".

Zelensky said on Sunday: "The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today."

Counterproposal made

A European official said Europe had come up with a counterproposal to Trump's, but declined to provide details. Russian officials accused Europe of trying to thwart Trump's efforts to end the fighting.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on social media that European leaders were obstructing US attempts to mediate in the Ukraine conflict.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also criticized Ukraine-EU relations in a sharply worded statement.

Ukraine and its European allies have been haunted for months by the fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for making peace, could cut a deal that would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv.

Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said on Sunday that Kyiv's partnership with its European allies was critical to counter any attempts to keep it away from the table.

On the front lines, Russian air defense systems downed seven Ukrainian drones en route to Russia's capital overnight and on Monday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.

Three people were killed in Ukrainian overnight drone attacks targeting the Tula and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as Moscow, Russia's regional official and the defense ministry said on Monday.

Agencies - Xinhua