European leaders gather in Berlin as US pushes to end Ukraine conflict

European leaders including Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron will meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday in a show of support hosted by the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, as the US pushes for a swift end to the war in Ukraine.The British prime minister, French president and the heads of Nato and the EU, who have criticised previous US proposals to end the Russian invasion as too favourable to Moscow, are set to convene with Zelenskyy on Monday evening at Merz’s offices in central Berlin.Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) with the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at Bellevue Palace in Berlin on Monday.A German government spokesperson said the US president Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were holding a second round of peace talks with Zelenskyy in the German capital on Monday, had also been invited to the working dinner.Witkoff said in a social media post “a lot of progress was made” after he and Kushner met Zelenskyy for five and a half hours at Merz’s chancellery on Sunday, without disclosing details.A picture released by Merz’s team showed him sitting beside Zelenskyy on Sunday in a gesture of solidarity, across the table from Witkoff and Kushner, but the chancellor did not join their talks.The picture released by Merz’s team shows him sitting beside Zelenskyy, across the table from Witkoff and Kushner. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/ReutersTrump has appeared increasingly impatient to bring about an end to four years of fighting, which he at first sought by Thanksgiving at the end of November. Zelenskyy has said the US leader is targeting Christmas as a deadline for a “full understanding” on a peace plan.The search for viable terms for an end to the war has run into major obstacles, including a dispute over control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is occupied mostly by Russian forces.Zelenskyy on Sunday expressed readiness to drop his country’s bid to join Nato if the US and other western nations gave Kyiv legally binding security guarantees similar to those offered to alliance members.“(T)oday, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries – Canada, Japan – are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelenskyy said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.President Zelenskyy departs the chancellery after talks with the US envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Photograph: Annegret Hilse/ReutersHe also said he hoped Washington would accept freezing the frontline where it was, rather than Ukraine ceding the entire Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, calling it the “fairest possible option”.Vladimir Putin has described Ukraine’s drive to join Nato as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.“Naturally this issue is one of the cornerstones and, of course, it is subject to special discussion,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday, adding that Moscow expected a US briefing on the Berlin discussions when they were over.European leaders stressed that the outcome of the talks on Ukraine would affect their own countries’ security for decades to come.Friedrich Merz receives President Zelenskyy at the chancellery in Berlin. Photograph: Action Press/ShutterstockMerz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside Macron and Starmer, warned at the weekend that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well”.“Pax Americana” refers to reliance on the US military and diplomacy to maintain relative peace and security around the globe. Merz said the Russian president’s goal was “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders”.“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz told a conference of fellow conservatives in Munich.Russia has denied it intends to attack Nato members.In a post on X on Sunday, Macron vowed that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace – one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”The US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, leaves the Adlon hotel in Berlin to attend a meeting at the chancellery Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty ImagesIn London, meanwhile, the head of Britain’s foreign spy service, MI6, was due to warn that Russia poses an “aggressive, expansionist” threat, in her first speech since taking office.Blaise Metreweli took over from Richard Moore in October, becoming the first woman to lead MI6.“Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained,” Metreweli was to say on Monday, according to advance extracts of her remarks.The EU, meanwhile, is scrambling this week to agree a plan on financing Ukraine in the coming years by using frozen Russian assets. A leaders’ meeting is scheduled to begin on Thursday and a deal still appears elusive.Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.