European leaders on Saturday voiced support for a three-way meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a U.S.-Russia summit failed to produce a cease-fire.
A statement, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, insisted on maintaining pressure on Russia until peace was achieved, including through sanctions.
Friday's Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska ended without the U.S. president extracting concrete commitments from Putin to halt Russia's invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
"We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia's war economy until there is a just and lasting peace," said the statement.
The European leaders also insisted Moscow "cannot have a veto" on Ukraine joining the European Union or NATO. Russia has made clear it will not tolerate Kyiv's membership of the defence alliance. But the leaders said they were "ready to work... towards a trilateral summit with European support".
