The Fort Worth Press - Europe pushes for Ukraine role in Trump-Putin talks

The two leaders will meet in the US state of Alaska on Friday to try to resolve the three-year war, but Europe has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any deal to end the conflict.

EU foreign ministers will discuss the next steps before the talks in a meeting by video link on Monday, joined by their Ukrainian counterpart.

The idea of a US-Russia meeting without Zelensky has raised concerns that a deal would require Kyiv to cede swathes of territory, which the EU has rejected.

"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.

In a flurry of diplomacy, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days including Kyiv's main backers Germany, Britain and France.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday said he hoped and assumed Zelensky will attend the leaders' summit.

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said any deal between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine must include Kyiv and the bloc.

"President Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine. The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. 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," Kallas said.

"I will convene an extraordinary meeting of the EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss our next steps," she said in a statement Sunday.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga will also take part in the meeting on Monday afternoon, the ministry said.

- Territory sticking point -

NATO head Mark Rutte told ABC's This Week broadcast on Sunday that Trump was "putting pressure on Putin", adding: "Next Friday will be important because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end."

Ukraine's military said on Sunday it had taken back a village in the Sumy region from the Russian army which has made significant recent gains.

The village is on the frontline in the north of the country and about 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of the main fighting between the two armies in the northern region.

As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.

Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.

The EU's Kallas backed Kyiv's position on Sunday.

"As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine," the EU foreign policy chief said.

NATO's Rutte said it was a reality that "Russia is controlling some of Ukrainian territory" and suggested a future deal could acknowledge this.

"When it comes to acknowledging, for example, maybe in a future deal, that Russia is controlling, de facto, factually, some of the territory of Ukraine. It has to be effectual recognition and not a political de jure recognition," Rutte told ABC's This Week.

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P.McDonald--TFWP