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Ukraine reportedly could agree to stop fighting and cede territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed peace plan, ahead of Friday's scheduled talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European leaders that they must reject any settlement proposed by Trump in which Ukraine gives up further territory, but that Russia could be allowed to retain some of the land it has taken. This would mean freezing the front line where it is and handing Russia de facto control of territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.
"The plan can only be related to the current positions held by the militaries," a Western official said to The Telegraph, characterizing a frantic weekend of diplomacy between Kyiv and its allies.
Ukraine and Europe have expressed concerns that Trump and Putin could negotiate an agreement without direct Ukrainian involvement.
"I have many fears and a lot of hope," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday. He added that U.S. officials had pledged to consult European leaders ahead of the face-to-face talks between Trump and Putin.
Among the concerns cited by European officials was a peace plan reportedly endorsed by Moscow, which included freezing the front lines in southeastern Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to withdraw from areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that it currently controls.
European diplomats report no change in Putin's stated war objectives, which include seeking to replace Ukraine's current government with one aligned with Moscow. Russia continues to pursue what the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, describes as the "full capitulation" of Kyiv, including opposition to NATO membership and demilitarization.
Monday evening, Zelenskyy stated there were no signs Russia was preparing to end the conflict despite the upcoming talks.
"On the contrary, they are moving their troops and forces in such a way as to launch new offensive operations," he said, citing a report from Ukraine's intelligence.
Ukraine has indicated it would only agree to a peace settlement that includes security guarantees in the form of weapons deliveries and a path to NATO membership, while accepting the possibility of ceding some currently Russian-controlled territory.
European governments have aligned with Kyiv's position on territorial arrangements in an effort to present Trump with unified diplomatic support for Ukraine's position that rejects concessions of Ukrainian-controlled land.
"Europeans now understand their role as supportive of Ukraine in terms of the diplomatic negotiations," said the Western official.
"It's a boost for morale, it's also strengthening the diplomatic positions of Ukraine so that it doesn't feel alone," the official added.
"For Poland and our partners, it is clear that state borders cannot be changed by force," Tusk said at a news conference Monday. "Russia's war with Ukraine must not bring benefits to the aggressor."
France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Friedrich Merz issued similar statements in support of a hardline approach to territorial concessions over the weekend.
A joint declaration by the leaders of the European Commission, France, Italy, the U.K., Poland, and Finland said that "the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations."
European leaders are expected to hold talks with Trump on Wednesday to make their case to him. Monday, the U.S. president said he would try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
There would be "some swapping, some changes to land," Trump said, adding: "Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine."
The U.S. president said Friday would be a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Russia to stop the war. He added: "We're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made because that's what I do. I make deals."
Trump said he could call Zelenskyy first "out of respect" and then European leaders after the meeting with the Russian president.
Trump criticized his Ukrainian counterpart over the rejection of concessions, saying Monday: "I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying, 'Well, I have to get constitutional approval'. I mean, he's got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap?"
The Ukrainian president would have to perform a juggling act as he would be blocked by his country's constitution from ceding territory without a nationwide referendum.
European officials believe Zelenskyy has leeway with a growing number of voters who would stomach surrendering land to Moscow as the price for the end of the war.
Kyiv can little afford to cede further territory, especially in the eastern region of Donetsk, because it would allow Moscow's forces to freely bypass the fortifications built since the original Donbas war of 2014.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte described the decision as a challenge of "how to deal with the factual situation that the Russians are holding, at this moment, Ukrainian territory."
"Crucially important here is that when it comes to this holding of Ukrainian territory, that there might be a factual situation that they are doing this, but that we can never accept that in a legal sense, in, as this is called, a de jure sense," he told CBS News on Sunday.
Zelenskyy had previously mooted swapping territory controlled by Ukraine in Russia's Kursk region. But Moscow's forces were able to break Kyiv's hold on the border region, ending that bargaining chip.
The Ukrainian president has also previously acknowledged that his armed forces lack the capabilities needed to reclaim land held by Moscow, but after any settlement, Kyiv could use diplomatic means to return the land to its control.
Russia is currently occupying around 20% of Ukraine's territory as agreed under Kyiv's internationally recognized 1991 borders.
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