European leaders on Thursday rushed to get a seat at the table in Ukraine peace talks after US President Donald Trump’s announcement of talks following a direct telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s move sent shock waves rippling through European capitals that desire a central role in peace talks since any settlement to the war in Ukraine, which has lived under the cloud of full-scale invasion from Russia for three years, will have repercussions on their own security.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte insisted that Ukraine needs to be part of peace talks, and any eventual deal to scrap Moscow’s war on Kyiv should be “durable.”
“Of course it is important – (when) we speak of Ukraine, that Ukraine is closely in the picture of everything with regard to Ukraine,” Rutte told reporters before a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday.