Trump Agrees on Ukraine Red Lines With Europe Before Putin Summit

US president also threatened Putin with "very severe consequences" if the Russian president refused a cease-fire in their coming meeting

- Bojan Pancevski

President Trump agreed with European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to red lines for the coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and said he hoped to follow up quickly with a trilateral summit with the two warring leaders.

Trump also threatened Putin with "very severe consequences" if the Russian president refused a cease-fire in their coming meeting.

The Wednesday videoconference between Trump and European leaders was constructive, participants said after the call.

Trump told his European peers that he wouldn't negotiate territorial issues, saying that Ukraine must discuss that directly with Russia, said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who initiated the meeting.

The U.S. president had made it clear that any security guarantees offered to Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal with Russia wouldn't involve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but he accepted that other guarantees would be given jointly by the U.S. and Europe, said Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who attended the meeting. Macron pointed to a potentially significant change in Trump's position on the issue.

"President Trump was very clear that the American desire was to obtain a cease-fire at this meeting in Alaska," Macron told reporters after the meeting.

Two other participants told The Wall Street Journal that Trump signaled that the U.S. would be willing to play a role in future security guarantees with Europe. They said Trump didn't offer any details.

"We Europeans are doing everything in our power to set the right foundations for this meeting, for we want Donald Trump to have success in Anchorage on Friday," Merz told a press conference with Zelensky after the meeting. "Fundamental interests of Ukraine and Europe must be secured in Alaska—this was the message we passed on to the president of the U.S.A."