European Capitals Clash Over Ukraine as Trump Makes Overtures to Putin

Stunned by Trump's outreach to Russia over Ukraine, European leaders are groping for common ground

- Daniel Michaels & Laurence Norman

Europe over recent years has come together against the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The European Union held strong in the face of Britain's exit. But faced with its biggest crisis in yearsPresident Trump's high-speed effort to end the war in Ukraine by negotiating directly with RussiaEurope has reverted to form in a blur of inconclusive meetings and squabbling governments.

Just when the continent is urgently seeking leadership, no leader has emerged. Instead, looming national elections are hindering decisions in some of the EU's biggest countries, and diverging political poles are impeding compromise.

Europe's inability to step up was laid bare by its absence from a meeting Tuesday in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian diplomats, who sketched out plans to negotiate over Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any talks that don't include his country were doomed.

Later, the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France and Italy spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the talks.

"Russia will try to divide us. Let's not walk into their traps," Kallas said on X, advocating cooperation with the U.S. for "a just and lasting peaceon Ukraine's terms."

EU officials in Brussels met with Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg. Afterward, a senior European official said Kellogg offered little detail on what the U.S. wants to see from the Europeans as part of a security guarantee; Kellogg didn't say what role Washington thought European troops should play if they were sent to Ukraine under a peace plan.

The official said it remained unclear how much weight Kellogg would have in relaying European views and concerns into the negotiations over the war's outcome. Kellogg is expected to visit Ukraine this week.