Europeans Rally Round Ukraine as Trump Envoy Heads to Moscow

• European leaders rallied to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday, December 1, 2025, after U.S.-Ukrainian talks to revise a peace proposal that initially favoured Russia, while the U.S. envoy headed to Moscow to brief the Kremlin. Zelenskiy was warmly received by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and the two joined a call with about a dozen other European leaders, including those of Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the European Union.
• Zelenskiy told a joint press conference with Macron after their meeting that Kyiv's priorities in peace talks were to maintain sovereignty and ensure strong security guarantees, and that territorial disputes remained the most complicated. He called on Ukraine's Western allies to ensure Russia was not rewarded for the war it started and said he hoped to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump after Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff had visited Russia this week. Macron told reporters that only Ukraine could decide on its territories in peace negotiations with Russia. Macron later discussed Ukraine in a call with Trump, the Elysee said, adding that they "discussed the conditions for a robust and lasting peace in Ukraine".
• S. and Ukrainian officials have yet to make public any amendments they have so far agreed to the 28-point plan, which Washington presented to Kyiv less than two weeks ago. Kyiv and its European allies have been pushing for revisions to terms, which call for Ukraine to give up more territory than Russia has seized, curb the size of its army, renounce joining NATO and be barred from hosting Western troops. Ukraine says that would amount to capitulation and leave it prone to eventual conquest by Russia, which invaded in 2014 and 2022.
• The intensified negotiations have arrived at a difficult juncture for Kyiv, which has been losing ground at the eastern front while facing the biggest corruption scandal of the war. Zelenskiy's chief of staff, who had also led the Ukrainian delegation at peace talks, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators searched his home. Two cabinet ministers have been fired, and a former business partner of Zelenskiy has been named as a suspect.
• Meanwhile, Russia has shown no sign of backing off its maximalist demands while its forces continue to make slow progress on the 1,200-km (750-mile) front line. Russia said on Monday its forces had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine, Klynove in the Donetsk region. It has also been bombarding Ukrainian cities nightly with long-range strikes, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, frequently leaving Ukrainians in cold and darkness as the war's fourth winter sets in.

(Source: Reuters)