The European Union will hold a meeting on Saturday with “like-minded” leaders in South Africa to discuss the peace plan proposed to Ukraine by US President Donald Trump, according to an EU official.
The meeting is due to take place later today on the margins of the G20 gathering in Johannesburg. The countries participating in discussions on the way forward for Ukraine are France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Canada, Japan, Australia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.
Meanwhile, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have already held a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders of the UK, France, and Germany also met earlier today to discuss a joint response to a unilateral US plan for Ukraine, the French presidency said.
“Costa will also invite all 27 EU leaders to a meeting on Ukraine on the margins of the EU–African Union Summit in Luanda (24-25 November),,” the EU official said.
The EU has responded to Trump’s 28-point peace plan, with von der Leyen reiterating that there can be no agreement on Ukraine without Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and the US are launching talks in Switzerland on ways to end the war, a Ukrainian negotiator said on Saturday.
“In the coming days in Switzerland we are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” the Secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, Rustem Umerov, who is on Ukraine’s negotiating team, wrote on social media.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had minutes earlier approved the Ukrainian delegation for the talks, which will be led by his top aide Andriy Yermak.
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