European leaders in a conference call this week voiced distrust of US efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to German news weekly Der Spiegel, which said it had obtained written notes on the call.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed scepticism in the call Monday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and others that US negotiators would safeguard Kyiv’s interests, the report said.
The magazine quoted Macron as saying during the call that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees”.
The French government did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment, but Der Spiegel quoted the presidency as saying Macron “did not express himself in these terms”.
According to the report, Merz warned Zelensky to be “very careful in the coming days” and added that “they are playing games with both you and us”.
The German chancellery told AFP that “we cannot comment on individual media reports. Furthermore, we cannot, as a matter of principle, report on confidential conversations.”
Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said in response to a question from AFP on the report that “we do not comment on provocations”.
According to Der Spiegel, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb also expressed distrust of US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were sent to the Kremlin for negotiations earlier this week.
“We cannot leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” Stubb said, according to Der Spiegel. His office also did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.
And NATO chief Mark Rutte agreed that “we must protect Volodymyr”, Der Spiegel said, citing what it said were notes on the call, not a verbatim transcript, and without naming the author of the notes.
AFP has also sought comment from NATO. Der Spiegel said Rutte’s office had declined comment.
Washington last month put forward an initial 28-point proposal to halt the war in Ukraine, drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies and criticised as too close a reflection of Moscow’s maximalist demands on Ukrainian territory.
A flurry of diplomacy has followed, with US and Ukrainian negotiators holding talks in Geneva and Florida before Witkoff and Kushner headed to Moscow on Tuesday.
Der Spiegel said two unnamed participants in the call on Monday had confirmed that the notes accurately reflected the content of the conversation, but that they could not confirm the quotes word for word as the leaders’ conservation was confidential.
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