Europe urges Zelenskyy: no Donbas withdrawal without firm U.S. guarantees

According to those officials, such a move would not constitute a just peace and would only “encourage a broader future war with Russia.” Representatives from several European countries are expected to travel to Washington in the coming days to raise these concerns with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Sources told Bloomberg that Europe is seeking to avoid a scenario in which Zelenskyy, under U.S. pressure and amid a deepening corruption scandal at home, is pushed to pull forces out of Donbas and accept a deal that lacks serious security commitments from Washington.

At the same time, officials in the EU and the United Kingdom still hope Trump will return to his October rhetoric — portraying Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as a “blocker of peace” and increasing pressure on Russia’s economy. But leaders also fear Trump could abandon support for Ukraine and peace efforts altogether if he fails to strike a deal.

One European official said the worst-case scenario would be a combination of tougher sanctions on Russia alongside a U.S. ban on Ukrainian use of American-supplied weapons and a halt to intelligence sharing between Washington and Kyiv. In that case, Europe would effectively be left to face the threat alone. A less dire option, the official added, would be if Trump declared the war a “European matter” but continued arms sales to NATO countries for transfer to Ukraine and maintained intelligence cooperation.

At the same time, Bloomberg noted that it remains unclear whether Europe can establish a long-term funding mechanism to support Ukraine.

As Spiegel previously reported, European heads of state and government appear to harbor deep mistrust toward the United States when it comes to peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The outlet published a transcript of a conversation between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, several other European leaders, and Zelenskyy, during which they warned that the U.S. “could betray Ukraine and Europe.”

Amid U.S. peace overtures, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin declared that Moscow “in any case” would seize control of “Donbas and Novorossiya” — whether by military means or “some other way.”