WASHINGTON - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Ukraine should not be forced to surrender its Donbass region to Russia in talks, likening it to the United States giving up Florida.
"The Russian demand that Kyiv give up the free parts of Donbass corresponds, to put it bluntly, to a proposal for the United States to have to give up Florida," Merz told reporters after talks at the White House.
Merz joined a White House meeting of top European leaders with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, which came three days after Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska.
Merz said that Putin and Trump, in a telephone call in the midst of the talks, "agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks."
While Trump's meeting with Zelensky avoided the confrontation of their last White House encounter on February 28, the US president had insisted before the talks that Ukraine would need to surrender territory.
Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and months later declared the annexation of Donbass areas, a step that has not been recognized internationally.
Merz said that Trump voiced a readiness to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, even though the US president himself put the onus on Europeans.
"The bottom line is that the United States of America is prepared to provide security guarantees and to coordinate this with the Europeans. There will be appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement," Merz said.
Trump has repeatedly ruled out Ukraine entering NATO, siding with Putin who has called the step a provocation. - AFP