Kyiv, EU alarmed by prospect of 'dirty deal' after Trump-Putin call

The American administration has admitted for the first time that Ukraine's 2014 borders and Nato membership are unrealistic goals

- Reuters

KYIV: Kyiv and its European allies demanded on Thursday that they be included in any peace negotiations, after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia's Vladimir Putin and said Ukraine could neither have all of its land back nor join Nato.

Russia's financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine's debt rose at the prospect of the first peace talks since the early months of Europe's deadliest war since World War II, soon to enter its fourth year.

But Trump's unilateral overture to Putin, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine's principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in Nato who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.

"We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He said Putin aimed to make his negotiations bilateral with the United States, and it was important not to allow that. European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public towards Trump's peace overture, saying any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.