European Union foreign ministers are meeting on August 11 to discuss this week's talks between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpar,t Vladimir Putin, over ending the war in Ukraine as Brussels seeks to forge a role for Kyiv at the summit.
The EU's top diplomats will hold a video conference during the day that includes the participation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha to discuss the August 15 meeting in Alaska amid growing talk from US officials that a peace deal would include Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.
"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain, and Finland, along with EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, said in a joint statement, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.
Washington appears to be preparing Kyiv and Moscow for major compromises to end the long, with US Vice President JD Vance warning on August 10 that any peace deal will likely leave both sides "unhappy."
"It's not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it," Vance said in a Fox News interview broadcast on August 10.
The talks come at a pivotal moment, with Trump increasingly frustrated with Putin and the Russian president showing no signs of bending on the Kremlin's maximalist demands.
Trump in recent days has suggested that any resolution to the war could include "swapping of territories."
He did not elaborate and it was unclear what territory could be swapped as Russia occupies large swathes of Ukraine, but Ukraine does not currently occupy any Russian territory.
Nonetheless, the remarks elicited vocal pushbacks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyiv's European allies, who have expressed strong backing for Ukraine's security and territorial integrity.
"The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations," Zelenskyy said in a social media post on August 10.
He added that Kyiv "values and fully supports" the statement of backing from its Western allies.
In his nightly address on August 10, Zelenskyy said, "We understand Russia's intention to try to deceive America -- we will not allow this."
European leaders have welcomed Trump's efforts to try to resolve the 41-month-old military conflict but emphasized the need to pressure Moscow and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.
In another statement released by Kyiv's Western allies on August 10, the Nordic-Baltic 8 group voiced its support for Ukraine and said peace could only be brought about through increased pressure on Russia to stop its "unlawful" war.
The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden stated they "reaffirm the principle that international borders must not be changed by force."
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed negotiators, has reported that European officials presented a counterproposal to the unspecified US plan, including a requirement that a cease-fire take place before any other steps are made and that any swaps of territory be reciprocal and include security guarantees.
European officials presented their proposals to Vance during a meeting with Ukrainian and European officials at a country mansion outside of London on August 9, the report said.
Russia's invasion has turned into the largest land war in Europe in more than 50 years, devastating Ukraine and transforming Russia, turning its economy into a war machine and establishing a police-state government criminalizing dissent.
Moscow's casualties, dead and wounded, stand at more than 1 million, according to Western estimates. Ukraine's war dead are believed to exceed 100,000, with overall casualties around 400,000.
As the talks near, both sides continue to launch attacks on each other.
In the early hours of August 11, Russian air strikes hit Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhya regions, while Ukrainian drones targeted sites deep inside Russia.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it successfully downed 59 Shahed-type drones and decoys out of 71 launched from the Russian towns and cities of Shatalovo, Kursk, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Twelve drones managed to hit six locations, while debris from others fell at one site.
In Arzamas, Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, a Ukrainian drone attack on August 11 on an industrial site killed one worker and injured two, local Governor Gleb Nikitin confirmed. Ukrainian social media channels circulated footage allegedly showing the strike on the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant.
The Russian military said it shot down 39 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions as well as over Russia-annexed Crimea.
