European leaders fear betrayal of Ukraine and harbour deep suspicions of the US administration's mediation role in intensifying peace talks.
The transcript of a phone call that took place on Monday between heads of government, which was leaked to German weekly Der Spiegel, revealed that serious doubts were shared across countries.
“There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity regarding security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said, according to an English-language transcript of the phone call. He added that there was “a great danger” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia’s demands for territorial concessions, including land it has not conquered in the Donbas region, are one of the most sensitive points in the negotiations. Mr Macron's office has issued a denial, saying he “did not express himself in those terms”.
The transcript of the call is not public, although it is known that several calls took place between European leaders during Mr Zelenskyy's visit to Paris on Monday.
The Elysee said at the time that four calls took place: the first between Mr Macron, Mr Zelenskyy, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. They were then joined by leaders from Denmark, Poland, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, the EU Council and the EU Commission. Finally, US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian lead negotiator Rustem Umerov joined in. Later, Mr Macron debriefed Mr Trump in a one-on-meeting.
The calls were part of a European effort to co-ordinate positions on the talks while also showing their support to Kyiv. Europeans had not been included in the elaboration of an initial 28-point peace plan, which they discovered last month in leaked press reports.
They were angered by several points in the plan, including the US intention to use Russian frozen assets located in Europe. The plan has been significantly altered since.
'Playing games'
Der Spiegel says it spoke to two participants that confirmed the content of the call was accurately reported but declined to confirm specific quotes, citing the confidentiality of the meeting.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz allegedly warned Mr Zelenskyy to be “extremely careful in the coming days”. “They are playing games, both with you and with us,” Mr Merz said, probably referring to the two US negotiators, Mr Witkoff and the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday brought no breakthrough but went “reasonably well”, according to Mr Trump. The view in Europe is that Mr Putin is trying to give the US administration the illusion that he is willing to negotiate but is not ready to make concessions to end the war.
Some European leaders reportedly hoped to meet the two emissaries on their way back from Moscow to Miami, where talks with a Ukrainian delegation are set to continue following a first meeting on Sunday.
The expected stopover, however, did not take place. On Wednesday, Mr Umerov debriefed European officials in Brussels, in parallel to a meeting of Nato foreign ministers at the alliance's headquarters.
In a highly unusual move, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the Nato meeting and was represented instead by his deputy, Christopher Landau, who had berated the alliance over the summer in a now deleted post on X that said: “Nato is still a solution in search of a problem.”
Mr Merz's office told Der Spiegiel that it would not comment on “circulated snippets of the conversation”.
The report also highlighted the apparent discrepancy between the public praise heaped by western leaders on Mr Trump's initiatives on Ukraine and their alleged lack of trust in those efforts.
Two leaders with good relations with the US President were particularly singled out: Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who enjoys golfing with Mr Trump, and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, who famously called Mr Trump “daddy” at the June Nato summit in The Hague.
“We mustn't leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” Mr Stubb said to which Mr Rutte responded: “I agree with Alexander; we must protect Volodymyr.” Mr Stubb declined to comment, and Mr Rutte did not respond to a request for comment from Der Spiegel.
Speaking on arrival at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday, Mr Rutte said: “I'm really glad that the US President broke the deadlock with Putin, started this whole peace process. It was only the US, under the leadership of President Trump, who could do this.”
As part of its build-up of military spending in the wake of the Ukraine war, Germany completed Israel's largest ever defence export deal. The German Army on Wednesday put into service its new ultra-high-altitude Arrow 3 air defence system to handle the ballistic missile threat it faces from the east.
