Europe backs Trump’s Ukraine peace push as Kremlin hedges on summit

European leaders Tuesday threw their support behind President Donald Trump’s peace push for Ukraine, while reaffirming their red lines, as the Kremlin cast doubt on chances of an imminent summit between the US leader and Vladimir Putin.

Fresh from his Gaza peace deal, Trump has resumed the search for an elusive breakthrough in Ukraine, as the war grinds into its fourth year since Russia’s invasion, through contacts with both Kyiv and Moscow.

The likelihood of a Trump-Putin summit taking place in Budapest within two weeks, as promised by the US leader, appeared to recede Tuesday as Moscow warned laying the groundwork “could take time.”

But the mooted sit-down has revived the prospect of Washington and Moscow cutting a deal that could disadvantage Kyiv and threaten broader European security interests.

The US leader asserted, after hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Friday, that peace talks should begin based on the current frontline with Russia — but multiple reports said US officials had in private pushed Kyiv to concede territory.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, leaders including Zelensky, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz threw their weight behind Trump’s peace effort — while appearing to seek to hold him to his public comments.

“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” said a statement signed by Zelensky, EU chiefs Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, Macron, Merz, Britain’s Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

“We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,” said the leaders, who also included those of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland.