A US official said President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were travelling to Germany for talks involving Ukrainians and Europeans, Reuters reported.
The choice to send Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia regarding a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress after nearly four years of war since Russia’s 2022 attack.
The White House had said on Thursday Trump would send an official to talks only if he felt there was enough progress to be made.
“Talks on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine are taking place in Berlin this weekend between foreign policy advisers from, among others, the US and Ukraine,” a German government source said on Saturday when asked about the meetings.
On Monday, Merz is hosting Zelenskiy and European leaders for a summit in Berlin, the latest in a series of public shows of support for the Ukrainian leader from allies across Europe as Kyiv faces pressure from Washington to sign up to a peace plan that initially backed Moscow’s main demands.
Britain, France and Germany have been working in the last few weeks to refine the US proposals, which, in a draft disclosed last month, called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its ambition to join NATO and accept limits on its armed forces.
Merz said in a speech on Saturday that Europe had to brace for a fundamental shift in its relations with the US while facing a growing threat from Russia.
“The decades of Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany as well. It no longer exists as we knew it. And nostalgia won’t change that,” he told a party congress in the southern city of Munich.
“The Americans are now very, very aggressively pursuing their own interests. And that can only mean one thing: that we, too, must now pursue our own interests.”
MNA
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